Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-21-Speech-4-027"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080221.3.4-027"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Madam President, these reports comment on the disparity between the rural and urban economies, between rich and poor, especially in eastern Europe, and between the disadvantaged and the rest of society.
The answer, apparently, is to offer a vast catalogue of cultural, economic, technical developments and social engineering provision. It notes the success of such programmes in Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece to relieve these inequalities and encourages similar strategies, frameworks and action programmes to generate progress in affected areas, especially in eastern Europe. Above all it mentions cohesion funds. We get to the nub. EUR 65 billion on such programmes in needy western countries in the last few years, but eastern Europe is much poorer than those countries ever were. So these subsidies – for that is what they are – will be taken from those countries still receiving them and from an ever smaller pot as the chill economic winds from the USA reach us.
Unfortunately for all its citizens – the well off and the poor alike – these subsidies are self-defeating for they strip away initiative from people and produce a culture of dependency.
If you really want to help, listen to Professor Buchanan of the London School of Economics. His paper states clearly that ‘to help a poor country, trade is worth six times more than aid’. Will you ever learn that? Or, to put it another way, if, in a poor country, you give a starving man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for life."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples