Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-487"
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".
Obviously it is extremely frustrating for MEPs, in a debate as important as this one and with such an excellent report, to have so little time.
Therefore, all this money, all these investments, they are not necessarily a bad thing. The real question is knowing how it is all used, how it is all managed. I know that I cannot make everybody agree, but that is the beauty of democracy. I sincerely believe that it is through openness, through dialogue, through the search for a triangular partnership, in this case, that we will make a difference. In my opinion, Europe will always remain a special partner of Africa for historical reasons, for geographical reasons, for model reasons. I am not afraid of that and I believe that, if we truly want to be present in Africa – as someone said, this is very important – we must do as I suggest and add another ingredient to the mix. We must stop implying that our interest in Africa is based solely on generosity, kindness and humanity.
Clearly we also have a duty in that respect, but we need to accept that a relationship with Africa represents an enormous win-win potential for Europe. It offers enormous potential for mutual economic development, and there is absolutely nothing wrong or immoral in looking at things from that perspective. At least the Chinese have one good quality: they make no secret of their plans. I have never heard the Chinese say that they want to help Africans or to foster development in Africa. No, they are honest. They play by the rules of economic development, this is their primary interest. Personally I believe that if we want to respect our partners, then we must accept this. We must not dismiss this aspect. There is no miracle solution. If Africa does not develop economically, it will not develop at all, period, and our charitable policies will make no difference.
That is what I wanted to say. I am sorry, Madam President, for taking so long, but I have expressed a belief that comes from my experience with these countries every day.
One final thing, for what it is worth. The Chinese ship is heading back to China for now. People have always said that Europe has little political influence. I have just come back from the SADEC Summit, where I spoke with heads of state. Zimbabwe was obviously on the agenda. I spoke with all the heads of state: Angola, Mozambique, all of them. I clarified the question of the Chinese ship. It was the dockers who reacted, but various countries also refused to unload the ship. According to the latest information that I have, the ship was sent back to China. For what it is worth, Europe has tried to do its duty with soft diplomacy and with the dockers, obviously with the voice of the people. This was all worthwhile, and it proves that Africans are not prepared to accept just anything when it comes to diplomacy, or politics for that matter.
I would simply like to acknowledge the fact that I have seen two camps emerge here in Parliament. There are those – and I am not being critical, I am simply saying that this is what I have observed – there are speakers who believe that pessimism and fear will get the Chinese out of Africa. Forget it, clearly that is not going to happen. Personally, I have an unshaken belief in the optimism that comes from modernity and openness.
I have heard other things here today that make me think that we need to realise that this kind of relationship with Africa is exactly what is making Africa lose faith in Europe. However, we must stop believing that we have a moral right to be in Africa. We have no right to be in Africa, none whatsoever, whether moral or otherwise. Our past certainly gives us no right to think this and I would just like to remind everyone of that.
In the same vein, I heard the Chinese being criticised for stealing our natural resources from Africa! I am sorry, I do not know whether Mr Coûteaux is still here, perhaps it was a slip of the tongue. Still, as if we owned natural resources in Africa! It is really quite amazing. I will be honest with you: this kind of comment rather surprises me at times.
I would tell you that the only danger I see in China's presence, in Chinese investment in Africa, is the resource curse for Africans. This is something we need to discuss with Africans. It is what is known as the ‘resource curse’ or ‘rentier economy’. This subject must be raised in our talks with Africa. I am a great believer in dialogue, in tripartite partnership, in feedback and in a mutual understanding of problems, as well as in the search for real cooperation. For others more prone to sermonising, this amounts to saying that ‘we Europeans must give lessons on how to protect these poor Africans from the Chinese’. I must tell you that I encounter these sorts of arguments every single day in my bilateral relations. They are pointless and I do not engage in them, nor do I expect anyone else to engage in them.
The report by Mrs Gomes is on the right track. Personally I think that almost everything the report says is on the right track. As you know, I am leaving for China in a few hours. I will meet with the Chinese Minister for Trade. President Barroso and I will meet with the Chinese Prime Minister. Do you honestly think that we will not talk about human rights, about Tibet, about democracy, about Africa? Of course we will, in the singular vernacular of conventional diplomacy. Megaphone diplomacy, in this case, is totally counterproductive. The more you say to Africans, the more you go and tell them that they must be wary of the Chinese, that they are determined to colonise African countries, that this is the resource curse, the more you say that, the less they will hear you and the less they will want to listen to you.
Europe has the tools to achieve its ambition. It can do this in two ways. Firstly, we have our model, which we must defend. We have to be different from others because our model is different from other models. It is founded on shared values, it is founded on tolerance, it is founded on openness, it is founded on dialogue, it is founded on feedback, it is founded on mutual respect. This is Europe, and Europe should not have to change. Europe does not have to become anything else or chase after other models. That is the first thing I wanted to say.
The second thing is as I said earlier. If we had a bit of courage – and the European Parliament can help us enormously here and indeed has already done so – to persuade Member States to divide the work better, to tweak the rules on the use of the European Development Fund, if we gave a bit more to the European institutions, if Parliament – by budgetising the EDF for example, which would then become much more effective politically – allocated more resources to Commissioners so that they could act in accordance with Europe’s values, using EDF funding, then I guarantee that Europe would not have to worry about competition with China. That is a fact.
There is some basis for this, because we have a formidable advantage. What advantage do we have? We are not about giving loans, we offer grants. I am not explaining myself properly. Africans today are turning to the Chinese and criticising us for not being responsive enough, even though we offer grants – in other words, money that they do not have to pay back – as opposed to soft loans which, it must be said, absorb natural resources. However, if these loans are used for infrastructure, for sustainable development, then who can argue that Africa does not benefit from this? As you know, when it comes to infrastructure in Africa, Europe, Europe and China, Europe, China and the US, Europe, China, Japan and the US, even the rest of the world, could offer as much funding as they want, it would still take years before there is enough infrastructure in Africa to support any real development."@en1
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