Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-213"
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".
Mr President, I would like to reiterate what the honourable Member has just said: of course, the fight against hunger is important and it is a moral obligation for us all. However, I would like to quote the figures for the development assistance provided in 2003, for example, by the European Union – the world's largest donor, if we take the Commission and the Member States together. In that year, the total was EUR 32 billion. If the current trends are confirmed, we can assume that in 2006, it will amount to around EUR 46 billion. Of course, we must continue our efforts to achieve the UN target of 0.7% of GDP, but let us take a good look at these figures: from the Commission budget alone, the sum of EUR 7 billion is allocated to development every year.
You are right in one respect. As Mr Yañez-Barnuevo has said, trade and other mechanisms, as well as debt relief, are important, of course, and the issue of coherence therefore plays a key role here as well. We all know that the Doha Development Round and the WTO conference in Hong Kong are extremely significant in this respect.
The Commission is currently negotiating the Economic Partnership Agreements
with the ACP countries, and the focus here is on trade as well. Our aim is to further liberalise the developing countries' access to EU markets. At the same time, the Commission is keen to help the developing countries boost their own economies in future too so that they can benefit from the opening of the markets.
I noted that this morning, we spoke a great deal about human rights, the rule of law and good governance. This afternoon, by contrast, we have not mentioned them. Monterrey addresses this very issue: the fact that an appropriate approach must be adopted by both sides. The developing countries must uphold these principles too, for otherwise our money – and it is taxpayers' money – will simply be wasted.
In response to Mr Kaczmarek, the honourable Member from Poland, who will be informed of my comments even though he is unfortunately no longer in the Chamber – I say this: it is, of course, sad that there is poverty in Poland, but that is why the European Union has established the Cohesion Fund and the Structural Funds and it is up to the Polish Government to make appropriate use of them.
In response to Mrs Martens, let me say that she is absolutely right. Until recently, I myself was not only the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria; I was also the State Secretary for Development Cooperation, and in my work, I always focussed on women, for they are a key development factor both within the family and in the economy as a whole. However, small and medium-sized enterprises are also extremely important for a bottom-up approach.
Finally, let me reiterate that from our perspective, it is extremely important for the Millennium Development Goals to dictate the direction of development cooperation. The Commission will work very closely with your House in this context, and we hope it will be possible to adopt the millennium package on 22 March. The package comprises four communications: one cross-cutting, which describes our contribution to the UN Millennium Summit, and three others, each dealing with one aspect of our endeavours. Here too, we will undoubtedly have occasion to discuss the financing issue further."@en1
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