Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-169"
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"en.20060322.14.3-169"2
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".
Mr President, it has not escaped Mr Winkler that this resolution is not only a joint resolution, but also a unanimous one. All the parties, irrespective of our political divisions, remind you of your duties.
This is a question of honour for our European Union and a question of respect. It is not a question of making a promise, but rather of making commitments, and it is a question of credibility with regard to our external action. It is as a result not only of the volume, but also of the effectiveness, of aid that credibility is gained.
With your permission, I will make two remarks on this subject. As regards volume, one might think that we are holding a virtual debate here because, between EUR 22 billion and EUR 24 billion, and allowing for the remaining balances and the under-spend, there is little point, when all is said and done, in fighting for EUR 2 billion that might not be spent. It is here that you have a responsibility: one of ensuring that this money is actually spent and, furthermore, one of allocating the largest share possible to large-scale regional projects, in particular. In saying that, I mean ‘region’ in the sense of NEPAD.
The subject of my second remark deeply perplexes me. In actual fact, if we honour our commitments and go from 0.31% to 0.56% of GDP in 2010, that will mean that we will have an extra EUR 50 billion available to spend on official development aid, EUR 25 billion of which – or one annual EDF – will go to Africa alone, in accordance with the commitment we have just made. I am totally perplexed when I come to realise that, where 80% of the funding is concerned, this promise of money will have to be kept by the Member States and not by the Union. When I can already see how the Member States react to having to fund the EDF at a sum of EUR 24 billion over five years, I doubt that they can demonstrate to us their ability to provide funding of EUR 25 billion on an annual, or near annual, basis.
We are therefore in the realms of virtual reality here. I believe that we are in danger of two things happening: that we will make fools of ourselves by announcing very high figures for very little in terms of achievement and, above all, that there will be a boomerang effect on our tax-paying constituents, who are going to wonder how on earth we can put the sums announced to good use."@en1
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