Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-145"
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"en.20020703.4.3-145"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, former fellow MEPs, ladies and gentlemen, as everyone knows, the World Food Summit – Five Years On was held in Rome from 10 – 13 June 2002. The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen international support for reinforced efforts to combat hunger and poverty with a view to achieving the aim of halving the number of the world’s starving by the year 2015. This aim was confirmed in connection with the UN’s Millennium Summit in September 2000 and now forms a basic element of the international development aims to which the global community has committed itself. The EU places great emphasis on these aims from the Millennium Summit as a starting point for national and international strategies to combat poverty.
For the EU, it was important that the discussion of trade and development did not prejudice the WTO negotiations and the follow-up of the Doha development agenda. In its conclusions of 30 May 2002 concerning preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development the Council confirmed that the EU is firmly resolved that the Doha development agenda should be implemented, with a positive result and within the specified timescale. The EU considers it important to achieve sustainable results on all fronts, which includes substantially greater opportunities for market access, including for the developing countries. This is to be based on balanced rules and targeted, sustainably-funded technical assistance and programmes designed to build up capacity.
The Summit declaration largely reflects the EU’s priorities and attitude, which I have just outlined. The declaration focuses on consolidating the results of the 1996 World Food Summit and the recent international conferences, as well as on a strengthened and renewed political will to make active efforts to achieve the international development aims in respect of combating hunger and poverty.
The declaration launches a new initiative on the right to food. Thus agreement was reached that an intergovernmental working party was to be set up to devise voluntary guidelines on the right to food, with the assistance of the FAO and involving all other relevant UN bodies with competence in the area of human rights. The developing countries hope that such guidelines will give added weight both to the requirement to secure the poor countries’ access to food and, thus, to the combating of hunger. The EU is backing the initiative and will be actively involved in the work on making the right to food a practical tool.
In the circumstances, we can be satisfied with the overall outcome of the summit. The outcome paves the way for the further discussions we will have in connection with the world summit in Johannesburg in August, where we will tackle the broad development agenda.
The balanced result is due not least to active input into the negotiations on the part of the EU. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the outgoing presidency of the Council for its efforts. The then President-in-Office, Prime Minister Aznar, represented the EU at the Summit. In his contribution on behalf of the EU, he emphasised the Union’s strong support for reinforced efforts to combat hunger and reported in detail on the EU’s attitude to the topics of the summit.
Thanks to this input, the EU managed to create a constructive climate for negotiations and effective cooperation with the developing countries, with which we reached agreement on a wide number of matters, as is now reflected in the declaration. At the same time, the EU was closely involved in the latest crucial negotiations concerning the most controversial issues. Overall, the EU thus played a not insignificant role with regard to securing progress in the negotiations and a sensible result.
I would like to conclude by emphasising that the EU is already making substantial efforts to contribute to combating hunger and poverty, both via the EU’s Community aid and through the EU Member States’ own bilateral and multilateral aid programmes. The EU and the Member States provide over 50% of total global development aid, a large part of which is spent on the development of rural areas and on the agricultural sector in the poorest countries. The EU and the Member States have already committed themselves to a substantial increase in their development aid at the European Council meeting in Barcelona in March of this year. A number of Member States, including my own country, Denmark, have already far exceeded the international objective of spending 0.7% of GDP on development aid. All the countries have undertaken to continue contributing the target 0.7%, or more if they are already contributing at a higher level. Those Member States that have yet to achieve this target have undertaken, as a minimum, to increase their development aid to the current EU average of 0.33% of GDP so that an overall EU average of 0.39% can be achieved by 2006.
It is on the basis both of these efforts and of binding partnerships with the developing countries that – under the Danish Presidency too, and especially in Johannesburg – the EU will go on working to step up the international fight against hunger and poverty.
Since the World Food Summit in 1996, the number of starving people in the world has fallen, but unfortunately by nowhere near the extent necessary. The average fall in the number of the starving today is just six million, despite the fact that there is a need for renewed and strengthened efforts if we are to achieve the annual average fall of 22 million in the number of starving people that is required for us to achieve our objective.
The summit resulted in a declaration entitled ‘The International Alliance against Hunger’, which was able to be passed as early as on the first day of the summit. Under this heading, the international community commits itself to strengthening and coordinating its efforts to combat hunger.
During the preparations, the EU worked in particular to ensure that the declaration maintained the obligations established at the World Food Summit in 1996 and did not water down the agreements reached previously. At the same time, the EU sought to ensure that the results of the most important international conferences and summits of recent times – including, especially, the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 and the International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey in March 2002 – were taken further and that links were made with the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, where the issue of combating hunger and poverty will be dealt with as an integral part of the overall international development policy agenda.
In accordance with the conclusions of the European Council meeting in Barcelona, the EU emphasised two parallel responsibilities: firstly, the developing countries’ primary responsibility for their own development and for the implementation of the action plan agreed at the World Food Summit in 1996 and, secondly, the international community’s responsibility to assist the poorest countries in this process. It was also crucial for the EU to secure recognition of the fact that efforts to combat poverty and hunger should take place within the frameworks of the developing countries’ own priorities and strategies for combating poverty.
Measures to encourage production are essential, but are not alone the solution to the problems. The level of global food production today is already sufficient to feed everyone. In a number of developing countries, the particular problem is that of securing the distribution of, and access to, food. Hunger is a problem relating to poverty. Consequently, broadly-based poverty-oriented economic growth and an improved economic distribution policy that benefits the poorest population groups are crucial for a sustainable solution to the world’s problems involving hunger. Efforts to combat hunger must therefore also include objectives for, among other things, good governance, respect for human rights, land reforms and an increased focus on health, education and production-oriented research and communication. In addition, consideration has to be given to the sustainable utilisation of natural resources and to the importance of ensuring conflict prevention. Finally, the developing countries’ access to research and technology is an essential element in the fight against hunger and poverty. All these elements were emphasised by the European Union in the run-up to the negotiations.
In the international sphere, the EU considered it important to emphasise the necessity of increasing total aid to the level of the internationally approved objective, which is to spend 0.7% of GDP on development aid. In this connection, it also wished for confirmation of the commitments made at Monterrey in March.
The poor countries’ access to the markets in the West is naturally an essential element in efforts to promote those countries’ development. The EU has already shown the way with the launch of the “Everything but Arms” initiative which, as we all know, means that the EU is giving the less developed countries duty- and quota-free access to the European market for all products with the exception of arms, or almost all products with the exception of arms.
In the negotiations, the EU also emphasised the importance of safe food for consumers in every country. At the same time, we stressed the need to provide technical support that enables the developing countries to meet internationally recognised food standards."@en1
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