Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-12-Speech-2-042"
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"en.20061212.8.2-042"2
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"Madam President, I wish to thank you once again for this closing debate. We had long negotiations, which at times were not easy, many formal and informal trialogues. As always, every party has to make its points clear, and sometimes that takes time. However, the important thing is that we get a good result in the end. I have listened very carefully to all of you and I think we can all live with this result and we can look to the future. There is now a new set of financial instruments and we want to ensure better external action and better visibility in favour of development, stability and human rights.
Let me now say a few words about some specific items mentioned in the debate. On the question of sexual and reproductive health and rights, I am aware that the issue is of a
sensitive nature wherever it has come up in all the different fora. It becomes an even more complex matter in a Union of 25 Member States, all of which have their own different traditions. For this reason, the respective provisions in the Development Cooperation Instrument represent a finely balanced compromise, which I admit was difficult to achieve and which should not be reopened. These provisions are largely taken from the old regulation on aid for actions on sexual and reproductive health and rights in developing countries. Hence, these provisions already reflect a certain consensus as the old regulation was approved by Parliament in codecision. Transferring the issue from the Development Cooperation Instrument to a separate regulation would not facilitate the problem, but rather protract the discussions on this very sensitive matter. Such a solution would also go against the aim of simplification, which was the guiding principle for the reform of the external action instruments. The respective provisions on the Development Cooperation Instrument reflect a balanced compromise, which most likely would not be improved by regulating the issue of sexual and reproductive health in a separate regulation.
I should also like to say a word on the question of the main thrust. The Commission reaffirms that eradication of poverty and the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals are at the core of the primary objective of its development assistance. The Commission commits itself to prioritising basic health and education and social cohesion as a whole in its programming and implementing role for country programmes. Moreover, the Commission will endeavour to ensure that a benchmark of 20% of its allocated assistance under country programmes covered by the DCI will be dedicated by the year of review, 2009, to basic and secondary education and basic health care.
But I also have to say that the DCI also contains a thematic programme on migration and asylum, which is the successor of the old AENEAS programme. The contents of this thematic programme are the expression again of a finely balanced compromise, in particular with the Member States in the Council. In the light of the challenges which the European Union is currently facing in the field of migration, the thematic programmes will respond to those needs. Indeed the root causes of migration will primarily be addressed through our geographic cooperation – I have just spoken about that. Those who have prospects will not migrate, but there are many others. It is combating illegal migration on the one hand, and working for legal migration on the other. We must not close our eyes to the fact that migration, and especially illegal migration, is one of the big challenges of our time that we have to face.
I look forward to putting those instruments to work, together with you. We have to look to the future. One of the most challenging questions throughout the negotiations on these new co-decided instruments was the role of Parliament in the strategic planning, as expressed in the strategy papers. Based on the declarations attached for the interinstitutional agreement on the new financial perspectives, the modalities of a democratic scrutiny dialogue have been fleshed out in an exchange of letters with the committees concerned. The first pilot country strategy paper will soon arrive in Parliament. We now look forward to the implementation of that democratic scrutiny dialogue.
Regarding the ICI, I should like to say to Mr Martin and Mrs Mann that, as you know, the legal base is Article 181(a) of the EC Treaty, which foresees the consultation procedure with Parliament in the legislative process. But of course the Commission is always ready to exchange views with Parliament on aspects of cooperation with industrialised countries too. We will certainly take the utmost account of any resolution that Parliament might adopt in that respect.
If, in the developing countries, we have not yet always seen the results we wanted to see, that is also because sometimes good governance has not yet been achieved. That is another very important factor I should like to highlight because we are providing a lot of funding and we try to do our best. Unfortunately, however, sometimes good governance is not there.
In conclusion, negotiations are always complicated, but what we wanted to have was simplification. It is so important to simplify in order to achieve visibility and efficiency. Reducing more than 40 different legislative instruments to seven policy-driven instruments has been difficult but I believe that in the end it has been a rewarding challenge. Three new instruments are already in force: pre-accession, the neighbourhood policy instrument and the stability instrument. Four instruments will be adopted shortly: the DCI and the ICI, the nuclear safety and the human rights and democracy instruments. Everyone who has spoken today of the positive results of our negotiations on the DCI and the ICI has also seen that.
What this whole exercise has shown is that if we, the three institutions – the Commission, the Council and Parliament – work together in a constructive manner, in the end we can produce results of quality. Again, I look forward to working together with you to secure a really good, efficient and visible implementation."@en1
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