Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-21-Speech-1-124"
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"en.20050221.14.1-124"2
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"Mr President, Commission President, ladies and gentlemen, some of us were in Porto Alegre a few days ago, either as part of our national responsibilities or, in my opinion more importantly, as part of the World Parliamentary Forum. I would therefore firstly like to thank my fellow Members who were in Porto Alegre, and in particular my colleague Harlem Désir, for the work they have done over many years to enable Europe to take part in this large-scale civic meeting.
Many commentators and participants shared the fear that this movement would run out of steam, but that has not been the case. The anti-globalisation movement has been able to redirect its activities and to define a new organisational method that has resulted in the World Social Forum being no longer just a platform for demands but also a platform for proposals. Moreover, the fact that the Davos Economic Forum discussed some of the subjects brought up in the world social forums proves that the questions asked there are ones that ask us all what sort of world we want.
Neither the World Social Forum nor the World Economic Forum in Davos, however, is a political actor that can, on its own, turn demands into political decisions. That is why a body like the European Parliament is duty-bound to pass on and lend powerful support to a number of initiatives, such as cancelling the debt of poor countries, increasing and improving public development aid, instituting a global tax, reforming international trade rules, combating tax evasion and tax havens and defending public services.
A number of Heads of State or Government have already taken initiatives, and other proposals will need to be put forward at the G8 summit. In this year, 2005, in which we will make an interim assessment of the implementation of the Millennium Objectives launched by the United Nations, these are all positive moves, provided they are not just more empty promises. That is why more than 100 organisations, NGOs, associations and trade unions will run a mobilisation and questioning campaign at global and European level this year. This campaign will speak out on the subjects of trade and poverty, in particular, and one of the first of its many initiatives will be a global action week for fairer trade next April.
We already know that, at the rate things are going, the Millennium Goals will not be achieved. It is therefore down to us to keep the promises made by others a long time ago, by supporting these initiatives and this global anti-poverty campaign in order to emphasise and demonstrate our desire for a better distribution of wealth, in a democratic and peaceful world. Politicians have let people down in the past. They may well do so in the future, but under no circumstances must they abandon the idea that they themselves have to fight for a fairer world, and translate this idea into action."@en1
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