Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-207"
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"en.20050223.16.3-207"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to draw your attention to the role the new Member States of the European Union play in the achievement of development cooperation. I am delighted that a number of the new Member States have recently made significant increases in the budgetary funds they have earmarked for development policy. Yet the people of these countries know very little about development cooperation. Many people believe that aid consists exclusively of humanitarian aid. The noble impulses of the heart and people’s generosity whenever there are natural or humanitarian disasters are commendable, but it is important for people to understand that the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger is a strategic goal.
I think that it would be worth alerting the citizens of the new Member States to the fact that the poverty that occurs in European countries is a different type of poverty to that which occurs in the poorest countries of the world. It is true that Poland is home to five million families who have to survive on the equivalent of EUR 2.5 per person per day, but EUR 2.5 in Poland is significantly more than EUR 2.5 in the poorest countries of the world. This is the case because the vast majority of men and women in Poland have access to water, electricity, gas, roads, education, health services and welfare. The difference between the technical and social infrastructure in the new EU Member States and in the poorest countries is much greater than it generally seems. Raising awareness of development cooperation in the new Member States is a task of such importance that not only the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, but also the governments of the Member States should commit themselves to accomplishing this task to the best of their abilities. I know that Commissioner Michel is aware of this issue.
Poland is the country where immensely positive changes in the economic, political and social spheres came about as a result of the Solidarity movement and the implementation of the idea of solidarity, which began 25 years ago. Lech Wałęsa always said that people needed fishing poles, not just fish. At the same time as fighting hunger and extreme poverty throughout the world, we should never forget that local opportunities must be created, as well as providing emergency aid. This would enable those living in the poorest countries of the world to help themselves, and we would avoid the phenomenon described by researchers as the ‘modernisation of dependence’."@en1
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