Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-13-Speech-3-374"
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"en.20020313.15.3-374"2
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". – Mr, President, let me first add my thanks to the rapporteur, Mrs Carlotti, for the good work she has put into preparing this report and also thank those who have contributed to the discussion tonight.
I note that in her report, Mrs Carlotti emphasises the importance of the parliamentary nature of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the role it should play in achieving the objectives set out in the Cotonou Agreement. I fully endorse this, and can only encourage the Assembly to reinforce its own legitimacy and democratic nature, for example by ensuring that it is composed purely of parliamentarians.
I have noted what has been said by a number of people about the need to broaden participation to allow for a more representative reflection of views. This may prompt something of a discussion, in fact, since such matters are defined in the Cotonou Agreement, but I sympathise with the attempt to make room for opposition parties to express their views within the work of the parliamentary assembly.
Another important point concerns a revision of the rules on financing to ensure the full participation of ACP parliamentarians in the Assembly’s sessions and other meetings. The Commission is, of course, concerned that ACP parliamentarians should play their full role, on an equal footing with their European counterparts, to ensure parity between ACP and European members. We are prepared to look into a possible revision of the agreement governing our contribution to the fund for the participation of ACP members. I hope that we will soon receive the financial forecasts we need from the ACP Secretariat to allow us to do this.
Mrs Carlotti suggests that a special fund should be set up to finance the Assembly. If I understand correctly, such a fund already exists, and is mentioned in the Declaration on the Joint Institutions annexed to the Cotonou Agreement and is, in fact, specified to be in the region of EUR 4 000 000. This fund covers financing of the Joint Council and Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and is managed by the ACP Secretariat. The Community’s contribution to this fund cannot be increased, but with a little planning there should be no problem as to the amount of money available to cover ACP participation. We will have to look at this in a practical way. Basically, given the relatively large strategic effort to strengthen civil society and to fund directly civil society NGOs in our ACP partner countries, it would appear unfair to leave the work of parliaments somewhat weakened while strengthening the political work of non-elected bodies in our partner countries. Hence my sympathy and understanding with regard to the need to ensure that this can actually operate smoothly.
Mrs Carlotti also suggests that the Assembly be more actively involved in scrutiny of the management of EDF funds. I agree with the spirit of her argument, and everything should be done to ensure that the Assembly fulfils the consultative role given to it by the Cotonou Agreement. However, I am sure you will understand that this should not lead to the establishment of new complicated procedures and reporting requirements that will add to the problems we already have in making the whole system function. I can promise that we will provide information on the implementation and functioning of the EDF, and of course discussion of this theme in the Joint Assembly is to be welcomed. All the more so since in launching the Cotonou Agreement and the preparatory work for the country strategy papers for the 9th European Development Fund activities we have reached out and included parliaments and public in our ACP partner countries in a way that intentionally raises expectations. For that reason, it is even more relevant and natural to engage the parliamentarians closely in specific discussions about the overall functioning of cooperation.
Finally, Mr President, it is true – several Members have pointed out – that we are lagging behind in the ratification process. Four or five Member States have completed ratification. They are Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the UK – and I think France has also completed its ratification process now. Technically speaking, this has not raised any real problems until now, but it will do so if we have not completed the process before the summer recess. I would not like to see a situation emerging where we have a slowdown in the real disbursement and real level of planning activity because of a failure of one or more Member States to ratify. That would simply be too embarrassing. I very much appreciate what has been said tonight and urge Members of the European Parliament to encourage completion of this process in their own countries."@en1
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