Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-16-Speech-3-257"
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"en.20020116.17.3-257"2
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"Mr President, I welcome the report by Mr Rod and I agree with him that the renewal of the framework agreement governing cooperation between the EU and ACP States is best considered against the backdrop of the challenges posed by globalisation, economic liberalisation and the European Commission's reform of external assistance. Indeed, over 18 months after the signing at Cotonou, we can now begin to assess the agreement by looking at the actual progress made in bringing it to life.
First, despite its strengths, in one particular aspect at least the previous Lomé agreement fell short, that is in the fight against poverty. I very much welcome the promotion of poverty eradication as one of the core aims of the new partnership agreement, but we must ensure that this is also reflected in the Commission's programming through its country strategy papers.
I regret to say that the strategy papers reviewed so far show the transport sector receiving 35% and macroeconomic support 25% of all programmable resources. In the Committee on Development and Cooperation we have on countless occasions stressed the need to plough resources into basic health and basic education if we are serious about poverty reduction. It is right to stress this point again tonight.
The second crucial change from Lomé concerns civil society participation. What sort of results can we expect after hearing reports that civil society has not yet been involved in a genuine and meaningful way? I am disappointed to see that out of a possible 15%, only 2% of resources have been allocated to capacity building in the country strategy papers drawn up so far. Was this because civil society organisations were not consulted or because civil society has such a low absorption rate?
The Cotonou agreement stipulates that civil society participation should come from the bottom up, yet without the capacity this is impossible.
Finally, in pointing out some of the practical challenges that lie ahead, I would not and do not want to denigrate the huge achievement of the negotiation and signing of the agreement in the first place. The EU-ACP partnership remains a model for North-South cooperation in our world and one which we celebrate properly in our vote for ratification in the European Parliament this week."@en1
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