Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-16-Speech-4-162"
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"en.20041216.12.4-162"2
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"Mr President, since colonial times, the countries of the developing world have been supplying cheap products from the agricultural, mining and small-scale craft sectors to rich countries. They rely on the rich countries in the North for imports of expensive products based on new industrial technology. That makes these countries extremely dependent on imports and exports and results in a trade balance very unfavourable to them. Just like the time when European countries exerted administrative power through military force, this distribution is still leading to permanent poverty and underdevelopment in the Developing World.
It is easy to see, then, why the governments of these countries thought that all new industries were to their advantage, in particular large-scale metal and chemicals industries. These countries had held little attraction for this kind of industry in the past, not only because the workforce was still insufficiently trained, but chiefly because most customers were in richer parts of the world and transporting finished products was expensive. The only industry that took root originated from State-owned enterprises or served only the local market and the tourists.
The need for stronger industry in these countries was and is abused by industries from the rich North because, although these industries want to expand, the southern countries are still not very important as markets whilst their purchasing power remains low. Investment in the South does become an attractive prospect for them, however, if wages are low and, in particular, if environmental and safety requirements there are less exacting or very poorly monitored. This makes it possible for disasters in which many people suffer incurable illness or lose their lives to occur. This danger threatens not only the employees of those enterprises but also the people living in the neighbourhood. Where disasters do happen, enterprises are not willing to bear the costs. The gas explosion twenty years ago in Bhopal and the way in which this was dealt with have a great deal to do with this.
Neither Union Carbide nor Dow Chemical nor the Indian Government are willing to produce sufficient compensation for the 20 000 or more people killed, for more than 100 000 people left with permanent injuries, or for cleaning up the contamination of soil and ground water. A solution must be found, and disasters of this nature must never happen again. Let us Europeans take our responsibility, let us join in making payments if necessary, and most importantly let us lay down rules to ensure that this kind of error is not repeated by European enterprises."@en1
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