Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-06-Speech-3-071"
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"en.20020206.4.3-071"2
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"Mr President, we must welcome the International Conference on Financing for Development, as this is an essential theme in the debate on reducing aid to developing countries.
For more than 20 years, the UN has told donor countries that they must dedicate 0.7% of their GNP to state development aid, in accordance with OECD standards, but only four countries are respecting this commitment. Aid is decreasing in general and the current average is 0.2%. Developing countries are suffering badly from the gradual and structural deterioration in trade terms for basic products and are caught up in the vicious cycle of paying back often illegitimate debts, as well as the interest charged on them. How can we raise financial resources for the human, economic and social development of these people, given these circumstances?
Our hopes rest on Monterrey therefore, unless the outcome has already been determined and the American positions dominate this conference, as was the case at Doha. By faithfully following the liberal principles of development that the international institutions and the European Commission have been applying for 20 years, the document before us, just as the Monterrey consensus, never calls neo-liberal globalisation into question. However, the income of the population of developing countries has continued to fall over the same period, which proves this formula is ineffective and counter-productive. It is failing, but we carry on regardless.
I do not know if the draft consensus for Monterrey, which does not propose any ambitious objectives, any practical financial measures or a timetable, is set in stone. If that is the case, and if the conference limits itself to making wonderful statements which will never be followed up, I think that we must cancel it and the millions of euro that have been earmarked to organise the conference must be given directly to the least-advanced countries.
It would be a shame because there are grounds to condemn and criticise, but there are also grounds to discuss and, in relation to mobilising aid, propose cancelling debt, taxing capital and reforming the WTO.
The European Union must seize this opportunity to push through the adoption of ambitious objectives as well as restrictive measures, which could enable poverty levels to be cut in half by 2015. The EU must reiterate the commitment made at Gothenburg to request the Member States to increase their aid to 0.7%. The governments and parliaments which agreed to the principle of a Tobin-type tax must demonstrate their interest in regulating the financial markets and redistributing wealth towards the south.
Mr President, all those taking part in the summit must ensure that it is a success. The European Union has a responsibility to do this."@en1
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