Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-28-Speech-3-165"
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"en.20010228.9.3-165"2
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"Mr President, Community development policy must make it possible to establish a framework for discussion with the European Union’s partners, to coordinate European action with other donors, particularly the Member States and to increase consistency with other Community policies, especially commercial policy and common agricultural policy. The Commission’s current approach, however, will not give rise to a fair policy because it is still dependent on the market’s operation and the rules specified by the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, which are still unfavourable for developing countries. Liberal globalisation to promote development has admittedly been a failure. Mr Gemelli’s report quite rightly denounces the deterioration in the economic, social and environmental situation of developing countries, the worsening of poverty and the negative impact of globalisation on these countries. It advocates a review of the WTO rules so that account is taken of developing countries.
We should reiterate, however, the basic principle of a sustainable development policy. The beneficiaries of the aid should set out their development strategy themselves, with their own needs in mind. Here, however, we have exactly the reverse – the European Union gives itself the right to dictate to its partners how to use the aid in the six areas that it considers to be priorities. We must take away this fundamental ambiguity. Are we acting in the interests of the countries that we apparently want to help, or in the interests of the European Union and its Member States? Where does the European Union stop having a direct interest and where does its development policy begin?
Developing countries are obviously experiencing difficulties in protecting their interests within the international community. For example, in terms of health care, a court case was brought against South Africa by pharmaceutical multinationals. Brazil was condemned by the United States because it manufactured or imported cheap generic drugs for combating AIDS, a disease which is killing millions of Brazilians.
The European Community must make its voice heard in the international courts in order to defend the principle of potentially granting free licences to developing countries that have pressing health care problems. I am asking my fellow Members to do this by adopting an amendment that has, moreover, already been adopted by the Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
The continued reduction of the Community budget for development, which is 1.1% smaller in the draft budget for 2002, is also incomprehensible, whereas development cooperation is one of the priorities of the Commission’s Work Programme for 2001.
There is a long list of deviations from the development policy that the Commission has, up to now, been conducting. We shall therefore vote in favour of this report, since it highlights the gulf between political statements and the progress that has actually been made, even if it does not always follow our logic to the letter."@en1
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