Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-04-Speech-4-229"
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"en.20030904.8.4-229"2
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"Mr President, aid which is conditional on the acquisition of goods or services originating in the donor country has repeatedly been condemned as an immoral and inefficient practice by recipient countries and the worst-affected NGOs on the one hand, and on the other by the majority of agencies involved in development issues. Among the latter are many intergovernmental organisations.
In 1996, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a strategy document entitled ‘Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Cooperation’. This publication discredited the practice of imposing conditions on development assistance, showing it to be incompatible with the new guiding philosophy for initiatives in this field.
Since then, that philosophy has gradually taken on a definite, solid form through a series of important declarations and resolutions, such as the DAC’s recommendation, approved in May 2001, demanding that aid to the least-developed countries should be untied.
More importantly, the international community adopted the Monterrey Consensus at the International Conference on Financing for Development in March 2002, committing itself to supporting initiatives designed to phase out conditional aid.
In its communication of November 2002, entitled ‘Untying: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Aid’, the Commission responds to just those promises made at Monterrey. It goes even further than the DAC’s resolution, since it extends the need to untie aid to all developing countries, not just to least-developed countries. It also extends the untying of aid to all aid sectors, including food aid.
All these recommendations are still gaining ground, under pressure from lobbying by the general public and by NGOs. They have not, however, made a great impression on a large number of countries, which are continuing to grant tied aid, either openly or covertly. This is unfortunately also true of various EU Member States. The result is a significant discrepancy between the policy advocated by Parliament and implemented by the Commission on the one hand, and the policy put into practice by some Member States, such as Spain under José María Aznar, on the other.
It comes as no surprise that the report presented by Mr Fernández Martín, a
deputy in my country, should list a series of initial misgivings about the progressive approach urged by the Commission, an approach favourable to the untying of development cooperation policy. In the rapporteur’s favour, however, it should be said that he showed understanding and flexibility by accepting the amendments tabled to his first proposal, which have yielded substantial improvements in his final text.
That text includes a motion for a resolution approved by the Parliamentary Committee on Development and Cooperation. We will be reasonably happy to vote for it, since it favours the complete untying of development aid, both European Union aid and aid granted by each and every one of the Member States."@en1
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