Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-06-Speech-4-052"
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"en.20060706.4.4-052"2
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".
Madam President, this has been an important and illuminating debate that will send a very clear message to citizens across Europe who want to put trade more effectively at the service of development.
Just because Fair Trade schemes are not a panacea, that does not mean to say that we should fail to support them. Just because they are not a total solution, that should not blind us to the fact that they make a very important contribution to the overall solution that we want to see in putting trade at the service of development, to enable us to tackle poverty in the world. That is why this report and debate enable us to take a stand and deliver a message, not least because there is growing public interest and concern. I thought Mr Karim’s speech in particular illustrated the growth of activity, public opinion and consciousness. We as politicians need to express and reflect that opinion and find ways for it to grow.
For all those reasons, because consumers are becoming increasingly aware and want to make an informed choice, that translates into pressure on mainstream operators, producers and traders to raise their game in order to match higher public expectations and standards. That then also converts into pressure on governments to act to help raise those standards and to increase consumer awareness and information. So we have a ‘virtuous’ circle here, to which we should be contributing.
Of course, what works in the private context and what works for an individual consumer choice does not automatically or neatly convert into a prescribed public policy. That is obvious. Nor is it the case that one particular Fair Trade scheme or Fair Trade label gives that scheme or that label an exclusive right to endorsement. There are other organisations and NGOs, such as the Rainforest Alliance, which deliver many of the same environmental and social benefits by working in collaboration with mainstream companies. The key policy challenge is to get the most out of all these efforts, not to identify some in order to discriminate, unwittingly and unintentionally, against others.
I would like to re-commit the Commission to working with NGOs in this area and we welcome Parliament’s support. There is broader work being led by Mr Michel on commodity supply change, through which we are planning to support the creation of a web portal to serve as a clearing-house of information about consumer assurance schemes of all kinds.
There are other ideas and proposals that I want to take back to the Commission and to consider with my colleagues. We need to establish good models that provide for higher standards. That is what we are jointly committed to and I look forward to continuing this work with Parliament."@en1
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