Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-13-Speech-2-600-000"
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"en.20120313.23.2-600-000"2
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"Mr President, I think there has been a great convergence of views during the debate. It is true that cocoa is a great product. It is also true that for many countries, such as Côte d’Ivoire, it is an important product for the economy.
Fair trade should be practised and a fair price should be paid for the product. It should also be the industry’s responsibility to ensure that the products they sell are not tainted and use sustainable labour practices. It is also important that we include all elements of the fight against poverty in the same package; that is what we are doing in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and other countries.
But further measures are needed to address the problem of child labour. I will just recall a couple of them: the European Union is conducting a lobbying campaign to support the ratification of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Child protection with regard to child labour has been identified as an EU priority in a number of the human rights country strategies that the EU has been drawing up. This is a very important point because we are engaging in political dialogue with our developing partners. This is where we could and should address this issue, with the aim of ensuring that countries also see it as a clear priority.
The Commission has also produced its Guide to Socially Responsible Procurement, which pays attention to labour practices. There are also relevant projects and programmes in development assistance. Some of these are specifically targeted at child labour; for example, the EUR 14 million TACKLE project on child labour and education which the ILO is carrying out in 14 ACP countries, and last year’s EUR 10 million call for proposals to combat child labour under the ‘Investing in People’ programme.
More specifically in the cocoa sector, the EDF Cocoa Sector Support programme effectively contributed to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and making cocoa production more sustainable in Ghana.
I would like to assure all of you that the Commission is fully committed to maintaining policy coherence in all its initiatives related to trade, development, human rights and corporate social responsibility, bearing in mind that in developing countries, the problem of child labour cannot be just looked at in isolation as a separate problem.
Taking into account the importance of ensuring that trade agreements include effective provisions on poverty reduction and the promotion of decent work and safe working conditions, the Commission is concretely looking into the issue of traceability of goods produced using forced child labour."@en1
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