Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-01-Speech-4-035"
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"en.20070201.4.4-035"2
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"Mr President, I should like to congratulate you on your appointment.
I am not going to speak about SMEs because many of my colleagues have already done so, but I want to emphasise and agree with them that this is an extremely important issue.
Government procurement accounts for 20% of GDP in developing countries and around 15% of GDP in developed countries. I feel a little bit Janus-faced on this issue, because intuitively I am in favour of opening up public procurement to competition. It should in theory reduce government costs and increase transparency in government procurement and therefore cut out corruption. That should bring benefits both to the developed and the developing world and, in the developing world, would free up resources for health and education. However, if you look at the list of those who have signed up for GPA, there is not a single African country among the 36. It is clear that the African countries and other LDCs feel that the costs potentially outweigh the benefits of signing up to this agreement.
I would ask the Commission what support could it plan to give, firstly, African and other LDC countries to enable them to compete in the European market and the other developed markets on a fair footing and what assistance can they be given to develop their own industry so that they can sustain competition inside their own country if they sign up for opening of the government procurement contracts.
I also worry, as Mrs Lucas has indicated in a slightly different way, how non-trade issues will be taken into account in GPA and the application of GPA, how issues like the environment, human rights and labour rights will be taken into account. I agree with Mrs Lucas that this is public money and that there is a danger, if we simply have GPA without any conditions, that labour and environmental standards could be driven down. On the one hand I can see the advantage of opening up public procurement, but it is fraught with dangers and I hope the Commission will examine these issues."@en1
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