Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-06-Speech-3-047"
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"en.20050706.3.3-047"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, more than thirty years ago the ecologist René Dumont said that Africa was in a sorry state. Today, it is again centre stage in an even more terrible state. And now you must recognise that the dogmatic liberalisation of trade, the plans for structural adjustment, the excessive privatisation and, of course, the broken promises have only served to worsen a situation that was already very difficult to the detriment of education and health policies in particular.
Having said that, the essential question is for the North, for us, to answer. Are we prepared to completely revise our development model, how we produce, consume and move around, and to rethink the very organisation and meaning of our societies? What is needed now is for us to set about resolving, in the North as well as in the South, problems as fundamental as the three that I should like to list for you here. Firstly, there is the problem of access to energy, petroleum and mining resources, on which we are far too dependent and which have not helped the development of Africa. Are we ready, yes or no, to implement a completely new energy policy that is sustainable, fair and environmentally friendly?
Secondly, there is the problem of access to land and to food, while respecting local rural cultures and territories. Are we ready to revise our intensive and over-industrialised agricultural policies, our unfair, subsidised trade policies, and to control the market and the price of products from the South in such a way that they are profitable?
Thirdly, there is the problem of access to democracy, the rule of law and peace, at local level as well as at global level. Are we prepared to make our international bodies democratic, to support democrats in Africa, at the risk of losing a part of that excessive power that the North has over the planet, powers symbolised by the G8 who are now shut away, as if in a fortress, at Gleneagles?
If we cannot clearly say yes to these three questions at least, then this great rousing media show, with the generous white knight coming to the aid of Africa, will have been, once again, no more than a sham. The European Union can no longer allow itself to disappoint. Now, for our part, we are ready to shoulder our responsibilities."@en1
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