Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-343"
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"en.20040113.15.2-343"2
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"Madam President, I thank the rapporteur for producing this own-initiative report, allowing us to debate what is an important initiative. It is important because it is a home-grown initiative. It comes from the African nations. Even if there are reservations, that point is extremely important.
On our own continent, it was when we realised that poverty, unemployment, dictatorship and war led nowhere that we were able to form the European Union and then move ahead. Now that Africa makes that political decision, hopefully it too can move ahead.
In post-war Europe we could not do it on our own. We needed help from outside. The rapporteur talks about the Marshall Plan in his conclusions to the report. The Marshall Plan was worth USD 13.4 billion over four years in 1948. That was a lot of money. Aid has to be properly spent, but proper aid has to be there in the first place, alongside better free trade and the untying of aid to African countries so that money is spent on what is needed, not on the things that we would like to see it spent on.
We can do a lot more in the EU to support this important initiative. I hope that the Commission will play its role in making sure that we work alongside the African leaders, who want this kind of change, and in making sure that it happens."@en1
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