Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-06-Speech-3-079"
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"en.20050706.3.3-079"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like first of all also to thank Mrs Morgantini for the debate that she had the sensitivity to organise today.
The first thing that this debate has highlighted is that there is a consensus and very strong support for the choice of Africa as the focal point of development policy. That seems to me to be extremely important, because that is the choice not only of the European Parliament but also of the Commission and of the Council. Obviously this does not mean that we are no longer concerned about all of the other poor people in the world. Not at all. It simply means that more than half of the increase in development aid will be devoted to Africa to enable it to make up the necessary ground.
The second element that I take from this debate is that everything suggests that we should develop, define and finalise a genuine European strategy for development, and for Africa in particular, a strategy structured around the major development issues – governance, infrastructure and debt. For example, someone said that the debt issue would not solve everything. We know that. The debt issue is certainly important, but it is not, strictly speaking, a development tool. The debt issue, settling the debt, obviously does not make it possible to guarantee the effectiveness of development. All the same, it is an interesting prerequisite.
The provision of social policies following the emergence of a dynamic civil society, the provision of social policies of access to justice, access to education, access to health and also to culture – as I said before – is an important point. I believe that all of these things should form part of a global strategy, a global plan and a specific programme that we must implement. I can say straight away that I am perfectly well aware of the difficulties that we are going to face. The difficulties lie in the fact that, once we have this programme, very strong leadership will need to be exerted over the bureaucracies that will have to implement it. For that I am counting on the support of both Parliament and the Council; at Commission level we will do everything in our power to progress these issues. I believe it is very important for us to be able to register tangible results. I think that after all the promises that have been made, and given all of the prospects – extremely credible ones, too – that are open to us, and all of the propitious circumstances that are combining now to produce this firm hope, it will be necessary to provide tangible proof very rapidly that matters are progressing in line with expectations.
Another element that I should like to emphasise, concerning Africa in particular, is the especially important role of all policies promoting equality between men and women in the continent. It is an aspect of the problem that we do not tackle often enough and I should really like to see it taken into account across the whole range of policies, because there are solutions to be found there and opportunities to exploit. In saying that, I am thinking of business and of trade. I am thinking of microcredit, of the way that this form of credit promotes autonomy for women. It is an important cultural factor.
That, in a few words, ladies and gentlemen, is what I wanted to say to you. I wanted to say, as Hilary Benn and Jack Straw have done, that now is the time to act. We are the ones who must do so. We have no more excuses. It has been said again and again and I do not think that we can postpone this challenge any longer, that of turning the strong hope living in the heart of the people into action. Someone said earlier that perhaps it would be a good thing if, out of this development policy, out of this new impetus, the magical idea of Europe could be given a new impetus. I think that Europe can make, has already made, development the most tangible demonstration of its values, and that is why I am resolutely optimistic."@en1
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