Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-136"
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"en.20051012.15.3-136"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the new strategy for Africa proposed by the Commission deserves this Parliament’s support.
It is true that for the first time we are being asked to tackle the issue of development in Africa on a multitude of interconnected levels, in a long-term plan. Let us hope that at the European Council in December this innovative approach receives resolute backing from the EU’s governments.
Anyway, we all know that in order to meet the majority of the Millennium Goals, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, focused commitment on development aid and a properly complementary approach to all kinds of intervention are needed.
Not only should the quantity of aid be increased – here I agree with Commissioner Michel – but far greater efficiency also needs to be achieved. That can only happen within a context of European consensus, which can place every bilateral relation within an overall coherent framework. Naturally, it is within this context that there are the greatest difficulties, since the old vices of national interest are always liable to prevail over the virtues of a single European strategy.
I believe it is even more important to place aid and development policies, over and above national interests – and I would like to draw the Commission’s attention to this point – under the principle of ownership, including budget aid: the Africans should be placed in a position to be able to build their own future and to assume full responsibility for it. One of these conditions, however, is a fairer global trade system, and here we can see a test shaping up for Europe, a test for Parliament and for the Commission: development policy cannot be separated from policy on the world trade system.
I hope that Europe will be able to play its role to the full at the next Hong Kong Conference, particularly with regard to issues that are decisive for the ownership of development policies by the African continent, such as the issue of duties, tariffs and export subsidies.
Finally, I would like to add that a special mission falls to this Parliament, in the face of European public opinion that is often apt to think that the situation in Africa is desperate. That is not the case and we should make it clear: Africa is a resource for us too."@en1
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