Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-23-Speech-1-069"
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Mr President, when we are directly involved we always tend to overstate the importance of an issue, but on this particular issue I do not think we can overstate its importance. We are dealing with a series of agreements here tonight that have the ability to affect the lives, the quality of the lives and the health of literally millions of people in the developing world.
I would like to hear the Commissioner today reassure us on a number of points.
Firstly, that the review clause in the agreement is a genuine review clause and will be taken seriously by the Commission: that we will look at development priorities, such as the alleviation of poverty, sustainable development, economic diversification and the contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals at the five-year point to ensure that EPAs are working in the interests of all these things, not against their interests.
Secondly, I would like to hear the Commissioner reassure us on the finance for EPAs. Calculations suggest that roughly EUR 580 million are available for the Cariforum countries over the existing EDF and other financial framework periods up to 2013. In my opinion – but of course I am no expert on this – this should be enough to meet the demands of the EPAs
they are properly programmed, if the money is all spent, if the Caribbean countries’ priorities are met in terms of where the money should be spent. Furthermore, we have to make sure that the Member States deliver their part of the EUR 2 billion that has been promised for ‘aid for trade’ across the developing world. We also have to look at the post-2013 position; we cannot get any assurances from the Commission on that, because that is for Parliament and the Council, but we have to be aware that the money runs out, the commitments run out in 2013.
The third assurance I want is on the most-favoured-nation (MFN) status. I have said to the Commissioner before that I entirely understand that the European Union should insist on exactly the same terms and conditions that the Caribbean countries give to the United States or another major developed power. But we should not be invoking the MFN clause if the Caribbean countries do a favourable deal with, say, a group of African countries.
Fourthly – and I am coming to a conclusion here – on access to medicines, we need assurance that nothing in the Cariforum Agreement threatens the use of the TRIPS mechanism – the mechanism should be put in no doubt.
I want to hear these assurances from the Commissioner but, even in advance of hearing them, I want to conclude by saying that I firmly believe the Commissioner has changed the tone and the nature of the discussion on EPAs, and I pay tribute to her for the work she has already done in this area.
Before turning to the substance of my report, I want to pay tribute to my colleague, Glenys Kinnock, who, as Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, has been at the forefront of making concerns about economic partnership agreements (EPAs) and the development impact of EPAs heard, not just in this Parliament but giving a voice to ACP concerns throughout the world. As many of you know, Glenys is giving up at the end of this Parliament, and I think we will very much miss the work that she has done in relation to the ACP, and EPAs in particular.
EPAs have a difficult history in this Parliament. There has been real tension between trade and development objectives. Some of that could have been avoided, but some of it is, frankly, intrinsic in the nature of the agreements.
Firstly, they were forced on us by a WTO ruling, and one-way liberalisation, which is essentially what EPAs required, is not easy to negotiate.
Secondly, the artificial deadline that was set for completing the full and interim EPAs meant that negotiations, which should have been between equals, were in fact not between equals, because the ACP side had something to lose if the deadlines were not met.
Finally – and this is not a criticism of them but of the reality of the negotiations – our negotiations were carried out by trade experts. Trade experts by their nature aim to get the best possible deal for the European Union. They did not necessarily aim to get the best development outcome. I repeat: that is not a criticism; that is what they are trained to do. But that is the reality of the negotiations.
We have, as a Parliament, since the conclusion of the negotiations been trying to square the circle between trade and development.
I want to concentrate my remarks as rapporteur for the Cariforum EPA, which of course, at the moment, is the only full Economic Partnership Agreement. As this EPA has been signed, we cannot amend the text, we only have an opportunity to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to it. I believe that, if the Commission and the Commissioner are able to give us certain assurances and certain interpretations of the text, we could be in a position this week to give our assent to the Cariforum EPA.
Lewis Carroll, the author, had one of his characters, Humpty Dumpty, say in a scornful tone: ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less’. Frankly, until recently, trying to understand some of the words in the Cariforum EPA has been a bit like that: trying to get clarity as to what the text actually means has not always been easy."@en1
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