Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-06-Speech-3-071"
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"en.20050706.3.3-071"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to begin by thanking you for giving me this opportunity to respond to the debate that my colleague Jack Straw opened this morning.
The second point is debt relief, which many speakers have referred to. The real importance of debt relief is that it means that poor countries no longer have to make that terrible choice between, on the one hand, making the monthly repayments that they cannot afford and, on the other, spending the money they want to on doctors, on nurses, on getting children into school, on buying the drugs that will save children’s and adults’ lives.
Thirdly, every one of us recognises that it is ultimately trade, economic development and economic growth that will enable Africa and the rest of the developing world to transform the lives of their people. It is how we did it here in Europe. It is how we transformed our societies from 500 years ago, when life expectancy was very short, when there was enormous poverty and when very few people went to school.
The people of Africa want exactly the same opportunity: to earn and to trade their way out of poverty to a better future.
There are two other truths that we have to tell in this debate. Two-and-a-half weeks ago I was in Sudan, first of all in Rumbek, in the south of Sudan, where one in four children die before they are five years of age and three-quarters of the adults cannot read. The experience in Darfur and southern Sudan has taught us one very important lesson: unless there is peace and stability, there will be no development; unless people stop fighting each other, the people of Africa will not have a better future. That is why Europe must continue to show leadership and provide support to the African Union, building the capacity of Africa to tackle its own conflicts. As my friend Jack Straw said in opening this debate, there are now fewer conflicts in Africa than there were a decade ago and, where there is peace and stability, there is a real prospect of hope for a better future.
The final thing that needs to happen, Mr President, if progress is to be made, is that there should be good governance because if, in the end, governments are to deliver for their people ...
Nobody listening to this debate could fail to hear the great expertise, knowledge, passion and commitment of all the Members who have spoken. It seems to me that your voices represent the voices of those that we together have the honour to represent.
I am very much looking forward, through the UK Presidency, to working with the Committee on Development and to addressing the committee next week. Mrs Morgantini was right: this is not about charity but justice. It is a cry for justice that is symbolised – as Mr Martínez Martínez pointed out – by the white band. The white tide that marched in Edinburgh last weekend is a symbol. The people who attended the Live 8 concerts and the people who write to us, their elected representatives, and demand that we do more are all expressing the feeling that now is the time to act – a point made by Mrs Martens and by Mr Bowis. I congratulate his mother on her 100th birthday. He is right: she has lived a long time; she has seen a lot of change happen.
We simply cannot afford to allow Africa to continue to drift away from the rest of the world. Mr Schulz, who has spoken just now with such passion, reminds us that it is the responsibility of every single one of us.
There has never been a time, in my political experience, when this debate about Africa, poverty, its causes and what we can do about it has been so much at the centre of our politics. It seems to me that the message that we are being sent by those we represent is very simple: they look to us to act and they want to have faith in the capacity of the political process to deliver real change on behalf of Africa and of development. It is morally unacceptable that this great continent of 54 countries, only a few miles from Europe, should drift away from us and should be the only part of the world to become poorer in the last 25 years. Now we have the means to do something about it. The challenge that Europe faces will be to turn the passion, commitment and anger – the feelings people have – into practical action that will make a difference. I agree with all those who have called for the EU strategy on Africa to be the means by which we use our politics to make a real difference. I look forward to working with Mr Michel, as he draws that up. I hope very much that we can make progress on it.
I would now like to turn to the practical steps we need to take. What are the issues we need to address in the EU Africa strategy? The first point to make – if I may disagree with one of the speakers, Mr Farage – is that aid works, aid saves children’s lives.
That is why we need more of it. That is why the leadership that Europe showed, when we met as development ministers over a month ago, in agreeing to double Europe’s aid to Africa, was Europe at its best. This was Europe demonstrating its leadership in the world and that we are prepared and willing and will do the things that we know will make a difference. That is the first point."@en1
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