Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-12-Speech-2-049"
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"en.20050412.7.2-049"2
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".
Mr President, the Millennium Declaration adopted by world leaders in 2000 represents an unprecedented declaration of solidarity. It is evidence that there is real determination to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets, which would lift 500 million people out of extreme poverty, would save 30 million children who would otherwise die before their fifth birthday, and would save more than 2 million mothers who would otherwise not have survived pregnancy and childbirth. Hundreds of millions of women and girls would be educated, and millions would have access to clean water and sanitation. The world has the technologies, the policies and the financial resources to deliver the promise and vision of the MDGs.
As the WHO reported only yesterday, 78 000 deaths occur as a result of unsafe abortions. Millions of women in desperate need resort to unsafe induced abortion. I would contradict those people who believe that any woman takes the decision to terminate a pregnancy lightly, and say very firmly that it is not and never would be the case. She has the right to choose good-quality responsive abortion and post-abortion care under the law. A woman has the right to choose.
On aid, MDG8 highlights the need for substantial increases in ODA. Only four Member States have already reached the 0.7% target. Others have set timetables. Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy and Portugal, meanwhile, are all far off target. At the current rate, Germany will not reach its target until 2087. Italy, one of the world’s wealthiest countries and a G-8 member, gives only a miserly 0.17% of its GNI in aid. There has to be close monitoring of annual intermediate targets by EU finance ministers and foreign ministers. I should like to ask the Commissioner to respond to that part of our resolution. The financial perspective suggests that further squeezing of development spending by other categories, as well as within the external relations category, threatens the likelihood of us contributing as we should to meeting the MDG targets.
The Commission must continue to work to improve the quality and effectiveness of our aid using the MDGs as the tool to guide our policies. Member States should collaborate and coordinate in a coherent way more than they do currently with the Commission, in order to tackle how aid can be best used to serve and fulfil the MDGs.
On unsustainable debt, most EU Member States are committed to cancelling the bilateral debts of the world’s poorest countries. Again, I am afraid that Italy must be singled out and named and shamed as a country continuing to make progress at a snail’s pace on this issue.
On trade, I totally agree and concur with the opinion presented by the Committee on International Trade, which covers a number of our concerns as far as the European Union’s role as the world’s biggest trading bloc is concerned: our role in dealing with access to markets, building capacity and other aspects of trade and trade liberalisation.
The European Union negotiates in a way that sometimes calls into question whether there is a clear enough understanding of the pro-development objectives that are referred to on so many occasions. This is true of both the WTO negotiations and the EPA negotiations where I can confirm that, as far as ACP countries are concerned, there is the sense of a need to feel that closer consultation has occurred and that there is greater understanding by DG Trade of the development aspects to which they give such high priority.
On the common agricultural policy, Member States must urgently tackle the practices that depress world prices, distort poor-country markets and undermine earning opportunities for their farmers.
I believe that the amendments on trade and agriculture policies, which we will vote on later, are in all cases inappropriate and, in a number of cases, propose totally unrealistic options.
Furthermore, Parliament should reject Amendments 10 to 16, which reflect unacceptable conservative views on essential aspects of MDG targets. The supply of condoms for the treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases and access to safe and legal abortion must remain as clear priorities if the over-arching goal of poverty eradication is to be achieved. Five hundred and thirty thousand women died in pregnancy or childbirth last year. There were more than 3 million stillborn births. Four million infants did not survive their first year of life. We should support the real need to facilitate access to responsive post-abortion procedures. There is also a need to facilitate access to high-quality and safe services to the fullest extent provided and allowed for by the laws in the countries concerned."@en1
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