Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-11-Speech-1-106"
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"en.20010611.6.1-106"2
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". – Mr President, I should like to begin by congratulating Mrs Dybkjær on her report on information and communication technologies in developing countries. It is a refreshing and stimulating report with a lot of insight and proposals.
Finally, in paragraph 32 the draft resolution calls for a report in 2003. The Commission has promised to submit an annual report on Community development policy and therefore proposes to cover ICT, as appropriate, in that annual report.
The Commission looks forward to contributing further to debates on ICT when it presents its communication later in the year.
I particularly appreciated the efforts to put the new technologies in the context of poverty alleviation and the need to ensure that poor people profit from it. For the Commission, this is a fundamental point. Indeed, the digital divide – that is to say the unequal access to information and communication technologies among and within countries – is a reflection of existing social and economic inequalities in both industrialised and developing countries. ICT did not create inequality, but it may well fuel it unless we are conscious of its impact. On the other hand. if applied with pragmatic realism, ICT can be a useful tool for economic development, and possibly even underpin the positive evolution of democracy.
Mrs Dybkjær's report is well timed. As we all know, the G8 leaders will be meeting in July in Genoa to consider, among other things, the reports and proposals by the DOT force. MEPs will have a second opportunity to discuss ICT and development subjects at the October session of the EU–ACP Joint Assembly, on the basis of a report by Mrs Junker. The Commission, for its part, is preparing a communication, to be submitted later in the year.
The report and motion for a resolution make several proposals on the role of Community development cooperation in respect of ICT. We welcome the suggestion that we work closely with Member States' aid agencies and define a division of labour in ICT. It is indeed important to distinguish between what should be done and what the Commission needs to do. Tasks and responsibilities can be shared with Member States; this is work in which the Commission will participate, both within the G8 and with Member States, but it will not take the lead.
Likewise, we welcome the consideration of ICT in country strategy papers. That will ensure that ICT is used in the context of a country's overall development policy and that the choice of priority sectors remains country- and not donor-driven.
We have some difficulties, however, with the proposal to widen the development priority areas. The joint statement of the Council and the Commission on European Community development priority policies was approved only last November. This proposal would run counter to it. The Commission has to focus its activities if it wants to deliver on its aid agenda.
Paragraphs 20 and 22 call on the Commission to play a greater role in ICT and development than seems reasonable or realistic at the present moment. More fundamentally, the Commission is making a serious effort to improve its aid management and increase its poverty focus. It will take some years for changes to take effect. If we do not, however, make a serious effort to focus on a limited number of priority areas, we shall only succeed in perpetuating the current problems.
The Commission is ready to consider the use of ICT within the existing priority areas and cross-cutting themes – if and when they are cost-effective in achieving stated objectives, and indeed that is increasingly the case. Adopting good governance, capacity-building, regional integration and administrative reform as focal points will, in many cases, accelerate the use of ICT as an important tool. Making specific provision for ICT within thematic budget lines would not, however, be consistent with our approach of using ICT as an integral part of our work in priority areas.
The Commission has reservations about the proposal to create an e-development unit within EuropeAid Cooperation Office and has created a unit for innovation with a similar mandate in mind for cross-cutting themes across the various geographical directorates, and feels that this meets its needs adequately."@en1
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