Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-05-Speech-2-135"
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"en.19991005.8.2-135"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start by saying how disappointed I was to note that, whilst the EU is fighting apartheid abroad and not without success, the call for a different kind of apartheid is being stepped up on the domestic front. For whilst South Africa is in the process of throwing off the yoke of a racially divided society, increasing numbers of Europeans are opting for intolerance towards others on ethnic grounds.
Whilst South Africans voted overwhelmingly for Nelson Mandela, Europeans voted in no small numbers for Jörg Haider and friends. This concerns me and it should disconcert us all. After all, our credibility in the fight against discrimination abroad is dependent on our resistance to such injustice within our own borders.
Having said that, I welcome the agreement that is under discussion today. I congratulate Mrs Kinnock on her report. It is about trade relations, development aid and it is also about political cooperation. These three issues are linked and form part of a European contribution to democratisation in South Africa and this in the hope that the whole of Southern Africa will benefit from it. Just as the European Community supports democratisation in Central and Eastern European regimes, by means of trade, development and cooperation, so the agreement we have before us is an attempt to help democracy in South Africa along. For although South Africa may belong to the African continent in geographical terms, we all know that in economic terms it is the front runner of this continent.
The country stands out from many other African regimes in political terms: peaceful relations with other countries, safety on the domestic front, a constitutional state, elections, respect for human rights and good governance are some of the political priorities, although in practice there appears to be a great deal of room for improvement. Economic growth and development mean that there is more prosperity and less poverty than in the rest of Central and Southern Africa. The GNP, both per capita and in parities, is rather different from the African average and is in fact very similar to that of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
According to the World Bank, South Africa is doing almost as well as Slovakia and better than Poland or Hungary. One might quip that if South Africa was in Eastern Europe, it would probably fail to be considered for membership of the European Union. With a population the size of that of Spain and the same surface area as France, Germany and the United Kingdom put together, the Republic of South Africa has important trump cards at its disposal for taking on the mantle of pioneer in this sensitive region. But for this to happen, the experiment involving a non-violent transfer of power, followed by a society at peace, must succeed, as must attempts to replace ethnic and racial tensions with economic growth, social progress and the spread of prosperity. This requires political stability and democratic consolidation, which is why the trade undertakings have been made dependent on these two benchmarks.
Accordingly the agreement provides for a supervisory cooperative Council. As Chairman of the interparliamentary delegation, I do not only welcome the fact that this agreement has been concluded but also the fact that it incorporates both institutional development and political cooperation. Commercial agreements must go hand in hand with institutional safeguards, just as political support will fail to work without economic assistance.
That is why I regret the proposal to cut back on the budget heading for the European Programme for Reconstruction and Development in South Africa, and I also address my comments to the Commission and the Council here. At the same time, I would like to ask the Commission how it intends to spend the EUR 125 million per year. The Court of Auditors has passed criticism. This Parliament’s Committee on Development and Cooperation has put forward suggestions. There appear to be difficulties when it comes to spending the money.
On a final note, I regret the self-interest displayed by certain Member States; it is they who are responsible for the fact that we have had to wait years for this agreement."@en1
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