Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-11-Speech-1-062"
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"en.20020311.4.1-062"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank all the speakers this afternoon for their contributions. I will try to make a few comments, which must be general, on the various contributions which have been made today because we cannot go into more detail given the time available.
The Commission believes that, on the aspects relating to globalisation, support for development and the environment, we must move ahead together and at the same time, without forgetting one fundamental approach: the one stemming from the Doha commitments. Trade plays a fundamental role, as does the transfer of investments, in development aid, and it must be carried out in a more equitable way in the future. For the negotiation stemming from Doha it is not only essential to defend our points of view as the European Union, but the developing countries must also defend theirs.
Therefore, as well as the ‘Everything but arms’ initiative, the Commission has proposed technical aid initiatives for these countries, so that they can better defend their interests and ultimately achieve a fairer system.
All the elements combined will allow us to improve, but in a few years time we will continue to discuss the necessary challenges of globalisation. We must implement an approach which leads towards a fairer society, although that is a long-term objective.
Firstly, I think we all agree that the current model we are following is creating a drift towards totally unacceptable unilateral models. We must insist on this point. Globalisation has rules which absolutely must be respected; otherwise, any globalisation process is obviously doomed to failure, and unilateral movements will have serious problems promoting the advantages of globalisation.
Secondly, the process of globalisation – I think we all agree – has brought benefits to economic development; the problem is that it also has drawbacks and consequently our work does not consist – or should not consist – of attacking globalisation, but of attacking a certain model of globalisation or the negative aspects of a certain model of globalisation.
When the Commission analysed these issues – which is the reason why I have jointly presented its three reports – it reached the conclusion that the concept of globalisation must include, as a minimum, the elements which relate to the existence of an international financial system which works efficiently, development aid systems and the elements relating to the environment and sustainable development.
Having heard your comments, I am going to refer to each of these issues: firstly, development aid. We all agree that we should concentrate on the fight against poverty as a fundamental element of development aid and that the problem of development aid is not only a problem of quantity but also of quality. In this respect, I am completely in favour of the ideas for improving governance in some of these countries, which is a key element in improving the functioning of that development aid.
Nevertheless, improving the quality of development aid must not lead us to forget its quantity, and we must acknowledge that it is still insufficient. It is true that we may run the risk of the Commission’s relatively pragmatic proposal of reaching a minimum of 0.33% for the countries of the Union by 2006 not being accepted. In any event, other third countries do not accept this proposal.
We are forgetting an issue which is fundamental to the whole process of future development: capital investment. Direct investments are playing a fundamental role in the whole process of development, and elements such as governance play a key and fundamental role in it, as do – as some of you have said – all the elements relating to better transfers of technology and any other element which allows for more appropriate development in these countries.
I would like to make a very specific comment on debt: it is true that the European Union has made a fundamental effort in relation to the cancelling of ACP countries’ debts. At the moment, the Union’s contribution has been greater than EUR 1 000 million and therefore the initial objective is heading in the right direction.
Is this sufficient? Possibly not. We probably have to consider more ambitious elements. In our report on globalisation we consider what are the possible systems for finding more resources with a view to dealing with the development processes. I absolutely agree with those people who have said that the solutions must not be simplistic. Unfortunately, we have not found any one single solution which would solve all the problems."@en1
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