Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-23-Speech-1-086"
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"en.20090323.14.1-086"2
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"Mr President, this debate is important because we are, of course, about to take a long break in our work on account of the elections. We therefore need to ensure that the Directorate General for Trade takes note of our sustained criticism of the content of the Economic Partnership Agreements, particularly as the Directorate will soon sign these agreements. In this regard, we need to emphasise the importance of the agreements returning to Parliament to obtain our approval.
On behalf of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, I want to make it clear that what we are most dubious about is the way in which these agreements have been entered into. No account has been taken of the issue of development when negotiations have been carried out with the ACP countries.
I therefore have a couple of specific comments relating to the two agreements that Parliament is to commit to on Wednesday, and I will explain why the Group of the Greens does not support them. As regards the agreement with Cariforum, detailed analyses by the Overseas Development Institute show that the Economic Partnership Agreement with the Caribbean countries is probably the least development-friendly of all of the agreements that have been negotiated so far. It will be a poor model for when other regional agreements are to be negotiated, especially when it comes to the aspect of development. Of course, it is not up to us to decide whether our concern is justified when the governments of the Cariforum states are themselves in favour of these agreements, but it would be perfectly in order for the parliaments of the individual countries affected to be permitted to vote on the agreements before the European Parliament has given its approval.
However, our concerns regarding the agreement with Cariforum, which we are raising here in the EU, are justified in any case. At the current time, when there is a great need for better control of the movement of money on the financial markets, we find it totally unacceptable that the Cariforum agreements allow full liberalisation of financial services with the eight tax havens that currently form part of Cariforum. If you do not believe me, take a look at your documents before you vote on Wednesday. In these documents you can read about the free movement of financial services sold over the counter, in other words what are referred to as ‘unregistered speculative derivatives’. You can also read about the right to establish funds for individual inhabitants. This all comes into the EU via our own tax havens, for example Malta and Cyprus. This can happen as long as there is no monitoring or regulation across the EU, and therefore it is simply not the right time to protect these structures, which share a large part of the responsibility for the collapse of our economies.
With regard to the agreement with Côte d’Ivoire, there is, of course, internal conflict going on there, and therefore it might not be the right time to enter into this agreement."@en1
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