Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-09-Speech-1-094"
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"en.20040209.6.1-094"2
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"Mr President, the cooperation system that links the European Union to the ACP countries is marked by a dual evolution in opposite directions. On the one hand, the original institutions implemented by the Lomé Conventions and confirmed by the Cotonou Convention, notably the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, have manifestly endured and are livelier than ever, and the report by Mrs Flesch clearly shows the innovative developments in the Joint Assembly in 2003. At the same time, however, the objectives and the substance of the cooperation, which these institutions are there to implement, are tending to weaken, degenerate, be trivialised, break apart and dissolve, to the point where, soon – if we let this carry on – they will consist only of financial aid with an upper limit and of standard free trade agreements that could be more a source of difficulty for the ACP countries than real instruments to aid their development.
As the rapporteur stresses, the creation in 2003 of three standing committees, in particular a Committee on Economic Development, Finance and Trade responsible for looking at the extremely delicate issue of negotiating future partnership agreements, reinforces the continuity of the Parliamentary Assembly and allows the quality of its work to be improved. The system of co-rapporteurs is original, and the work of the committee will lead to stronger, more finely tuned, better prepared and less routine resolutions, which will lead to much more in-depth debates than was possible in the plenary.
If, however, the institutional framework is enhanced and fine-tuned, we need to ask ourselves about the future of the cooperation instruments themselves. If future economic partnership agreements merely apply the principle of equality of competitors, is there not a risk that they will create insurmountable accounting problems for ACP countries by making them lose out on a large part of their customs revenue, which is an important, and sometimes an essential, part of their budget? Moreover, is there not a risk that putting Community merchandise and local products in direct competition with each other without sufficient safeguards will weaken or even suffocate a number of sectors of activity in the ACP countries?
If we want to do our bit to avoid these wayward developments, then this unique North-South parliamentary forum that is the Joint Assembly, must ensure that major negotiation of partnership agreements is carried out with the necessary ambition and energy, in particular in the area of agriculture, which is the platform for development. The ACP countries will, however, only have a sufficiently strong agriculture if it is adequately protected as a budding industry as it gets off the ground. The Cotonou framework, that of regional economic zones, can be seen as the most appropriate framework to promote the establishment of homogeneous regional common markets with a common external tariff.
It is by working in this direction, Mr President, that ACP and European countries will no longer find themselves on different playing fields in future negotiations regarding agriculture and world trade."@en1
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