Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-11-Speech-2-164"
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"en.20020611.9.2-164"2
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"Madam President, the meeting in Bali was a failure. I believe that is a generally-held view. We must learn from this failure at once. We have very little time left before Johannesburg. There is a risk of a concept we do not want, the concept of the privatisation of sustainable development, being imposed at Johannesburg.
Commissioner Wallström
has just referred to the voluntary partnership agreements with private companies. I believe we must avoid lapsing into ideology: we must see the partnership agreements as a potentially useful tool to complement the policies, but they must have a political framework and each party must be fully aware of the context in which they are operating. This, however, must not replace voluntary government policies, although that is clearly what certain parties involved would like, and I am thinking in particular of the United States.
I believe that the European Union, as Commissioner Wallström
said, must be ambitious in its goals for Johannesburg. In order to achieve our goals, however, we need allies. Perhaps we should prioritise dialogue with the countries that expect a lot from us, that is to say the poor countries; I think, for example, that the G 77 group is one group we must certainly prioritise. In this respect, I think that two proposals would give very positive political signals to these countries. The first, as explained by the President-in-Office of the Council, would be to propose that we change the European policies which prevent developing countries and the poorest countries from making progress towards sustainable development or meeting their basic needs. I am thinking in particular of aid for agricultural exports. It is unacceptable for us to continue to maintain an aid system for exports which penalises these countries. We must therefore make a significant gesture in this area.
The second proposal would consist of promoting a legal framework imposing constraints on transnational companies to encourage them to fulfil their environmental, social and economic responsibilities. It is not acceptable that, while States are constrained by international rules, transnational companies, which are sometimes far wealthier than States, are completely free and unrestricted."@en1
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