Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-04-Speech-1-217-000"
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"en.20110704.28.1-217-000"2
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"Mr President, I will say straight away that there are no miracle solutions to the problems that go with insecurity and poverty. One only has to look back over the different types of relationship we had with developing countries over the 20th century.
Mr President, I would like to end my speech by adding that I urge everyone to adopt my proposed amendment to paragraph 1. If it is not adopted, I will have to vote against my own report, as the statements that second-guess the Commission’s intentions are purely gratuitous and not at all justified.
As has been confirmed to me during our consultations, the Commission has taken all the necessary steps to ensure that the disbursements fulfil the precautionary conditions to which I just referred.
Lastly, I would like to say that paragraph 11 goes a little too far. It aims to promote budget support as basically the only form of development cooperation. This is going too far. It is not in keeping with the realistic outlook that the Commission has maintained throughout these discussions.
We can put behind us for good the colonial era, which was marked by the appropriation of entire continents by the old European colonial powers.
The next, postcolonial stage, which was characterised by a somewhat paternalistic approach, produced results that although perhaps not insignificant, were nonetheless highly unsatisfactory compared with the southern countries’ considerable needs, especially in the areas of health, education and basic economic development.
Over the last few decades, a policy of cooperation, based on a set of values including human rights, respect for minorities, upholding democratic principles and the rule of law has gradually become the norm.
This policy, which the European Union claims to its credit, focuses more on treating our partner countries as being in charge of their own development, hence the notions of partnership, political dialogue, and above all, ownership by the partner countries of their own development.
Indeed, the phrase ‘budget support’ is in keeping with the latter kind of relationship. ‘Budget support’ refers to the transfer of financial resources from a funding agency outside the partner country’s treasury, under the proviso that the country abide by the agreed conditions governing payments. At first sight, budget support may seem to be a risky undertaking. However, this is not true when the necessary precautions are taken to ensure that the funds are used wisely. All disbursements – and I must stress this point – are made on the premise that the recipient country has the necessary capacity to manage the funds. This means that the country must first have in place a strategy to combat poverty that addresses the basic needs of the inhabitants in question. This is also known as endogenous development, and is the only real form of lasting development.
The Commission, moreover, is very aware of the conditions that the recipient countries must meet, and has ensured that a fail-safe system is in place to prevent funds from being diverted in developing countries. As for the countries themselves, there is every reason for them to build up their capacity to engage with local communities, and with their parliaments of course, first and foremost.
Another benefit that is worth mentioning is that better control of public finances by the beneficiaries of budget support can also have a healthy effect on their taxation systems’ capacity to bring in additional revenue.
Nonetheless, budget support is not a cure-all, nor is it a funding instrument that all countries are able to make use of: far from it, in fact. One of the consequences of the strict conditions imposed is that they rule out a large number of developing countries."@en1
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