Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-29-Speech-3-099"
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"en.20000329.7.3-099"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of my colleague, Chris Patten, I have the following comments. The Commission agrees on the need to reinvigorate the Barcelona process and will soon be putting forward ideas which should enable us to move the process forward this year, particularly in the light of the Euro-Mediterranean Summit which is likely to take place in mid-November. The text of the Charter for Peace and Stability should be agreed at the meeting in mid-November. It should be as meaningful and far-reaching as possible. I should like to see regular security and stability discussions open to all partners willing to participate. In addition, we should develop cooperation on drugs, terrorism, migration, good governance and conflict prevention, at least with the Maghreb countries.
Support for civil society is key to the development of the human dimension of the partnership. I shall ensure that civil society is supported but as far as the old decentralised cooperation programmes are concerned, I shall not repeat the mistakes of the past regarding financial management and administration. NGOs can benefit from a number of programmes. The SMART Programme on the environment, the Cultural Heritage Programme, the EUROMED Youth Programme and MEDA Democracy, for example. I will consider what more we can do while respecting the need for sound financial management.
I also want to see an enhanced human rights dimension in the partnership. We should have a frank and open dialogue on the policies needed by partner governments to improve the situation in this respect. We shall use MEDA and the specific MEDA democracy programme to support positive actions, particularly by NGOs, to promote respect for human rights and democratic freedoms in the region. The economic objective of the partnership is to create an area of shared prosperity through the progressive establishment of free trade accompanied by substantial EU financial support for economic transition and to help the partners confront the social and economic challenges which this implies.
Programmes financed by MEDA are in place to support industrial modernisation, structural adjustment, development of the private sector, training and promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises. All programmes contain conditionalities ensuring that their social impact is taken into account. I intend to ensure an even tighter focus on priorities in our financial cooperation in the future, particularly by concentrating on sectoral adjustment facilities. These will enable us to focus on the key objectives of the partnership and will also improve the disbursement rate on MEDA.
The implementation of MEDA has been subject to criticism, some justified, some not. It is a young programme with specific objectives linked to the implementation of free trade with the partners. Often the final beneficiaries are not the partner governments. This has, in itself, increased the complexity of implementation.
The Commission has put forward a proposal to amend the MEDA regulation to ensure a more strategic approach to programming, better coordination with other donors, including the Member States, and streamlining of procedures. The proposal is still under discussion in the Council, and I fear, that far from supporting these objectives, the Council may be moving in the direction of making the procedure even heavier. I count on the Parliament to support our efforts. For my part, I shall also ensure that internal Commission procedures are reformed in a way to speed up delivery.
Investment is a major issue which was addressed at the important conference held in Lisbon on 29 February and 1 March. That conference showed that the key to increasing the regions’ attractiveness to investors is for the partners to have flourishing, open, competitive economies with a secure and predictable legal and administrative environment. We shall use MEDA to support the partners’ efforts in this respect.
Regional cooperation to ensure that the region presents a unified market is also vital. Sub-regional free trade areas should be supported as a step towards the global objective. I want to encourage the harmonisation of single market measures among all partners – an action programme should be agreed later this year – and to offer diagonal cumulation of origin to those partners who agree free trade among themselves.
Regional infrastructure is essential to economic development. MEDA supports, among other things, the interconnection of infrastructure as regards energy, transport and new technology. Investments in these areas are primarily supported by loans from the European Investment Bank as well as other donors. I shall continue to ensure that the right mix of funding is used to ensure that public and private actors can play their appropriate part.
As far as agriculture is concerned, there should be a thorough consideration of all of the issues related to this sector with a view to seeing what we can do to improve market access with the objective of free trade. In addition, we are considering the introduction of a regional cooperation programme which could focus on processing and conservation, quality standards and animal health."@en1
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