Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-16-Speech-1-222"
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"en.20080616.27.1-222"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start by congratulating the rapporteur, Mr Schmidt, on this report. Policy coherence for development is an important issue, and let me assure you that reducing the adverse effects and fully exploiting synergies between European policies and development is an integral part of our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Where I cannot agree with you, however, is the statement in the report linking immigration and fisheries agreements. Even the countries concerned – take for instance Senegal, in the person of its minister of state, Mr Djibo Ka – have publicly rejected the accusations that the presence of Community vessels is having a significant impact on resources and on the decline in profitability for non-industrial fishermen who are often the people most affected by illegal immigration.
We are indeed working with fishermen, NGOs and private partners in Europe and in these countries precisely to try and reduce as much as possible all negative interaction and unfair competition between our fishermen and the most vulnerable fishermen in these countries.
At the moment there is no European fleet competing with the non-industrial fleets of these countries in West Africa, although the same cannot be said of other foreign industrial fleets.
Other policies apart from development policy can in fact contribute significantly to development, and this naturally has a direct impact on the effectiveness of our aid.
As you rightly state in your report, tropical deforestation is a matter of concern for us all and I consider that a distinction should be made here between two aspects: deforestation and climate change on the one hand and combating illegal exploitation of forests on the other.
In Bali, the international community clearly identified the destruction of forests as one of the main causes of climate change. In keeping with the spirit of the UN Climate Change Conference the Commission intends to contribute EUR 5 million in 2008 to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, which is run by the World Bank. An additional EUR 60 million will be earmarked up to 2010 to finance the Global Alliance against Climate Change, an initiative we launched last year to underpin the efforts of the poorest countries to adapt to climate change.
Lastly, several countries including Ghana, Cameroon, Mali, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire have also included measures on the management of natural resources and governance of this sector in their national programmes for the 10th European Development Fund.
West Africa is also an important partner of the Union when it comes to combating the illegal exploitation of forests, as are Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, which export considerable amounts of timber to Europe.
Two of these countries, Cameroon and Ghana, are at this very moment finalising a voluntary FLEGT partnership agreement with the Union, and Liberia should be embarking on similar negotiations very shortly.
In relation to fisheries policy, as you rightly emphasised, the new fisheries partnership agreements have brought about greater coherence between the common fisheries policy and development policy; these new agreements are no longer confined to offering fishing opportunities to Community vessels, but also make it possible to embark on a dialogue with other partners in order to help them introduce a real sustainable and responsible fisheries policy in their waters.
In addition to the financial compensation granted under the fisheries agreements, which often contribute significantly to our partner countries’ revenue and hence to their macroeconomic stability, these agreements form an essential political and legal basis. This enables the Community to facilitate the development of their fisheries policies on the basis of dialogue and in the light of the priorities our partners have established in their fisheries policies."@en1
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