Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-11-Speech-1-049"
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"en.20020311.4.1-049"2
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"Mr President, one in five world citizens is denied access to clean drinking water, basic education and basic health care. The neo-liberal model has not provided any answers in these areas, nor has it made the world a safer, or more sustainable, place. We are now looking for an alternative, not as a blueprint, but as a line of thought and action, in order to give shape to our ideals of social justice and security for everyone.
Porto Alegre and the World Forum in New York were both venues where at least the sense of urgency and the necessity to act in a more socially responsible way were on the agenda. Porto Alegre appears to be more original, more up-to-the-minute and more creative, and also involves civil society. It could serve as a good model for Prime Minister Aznar to promote social dialogue within Europe, which is what Belgium did.
We, as Socialists, are convinced that globalisation offers enormous scope for poor countries and excluded groups to gain access and to combat social exclusion. Free trade should then, though, be coupled with rules and with supervision – by regional competition authorities – of concentrations of power that have grown far too big. Protecting and supporting weaker regions and drastically opening up richer markets to developing countries fit in well within this framework of rules. What does not, however, fit in well is protecting the strongest by introducing a network of social supervision of transnational businesses, although such a network would in itself be a good idea. Neither is there any room for unilateral action by transnational businesses or superpowers such as the United States or for a unilateral focus on a new arms race at the expense of public provisions including education and health care. Failure to honour the pledge to halve poverty by 2015 does not fit into this framework either.
However, this framework does offer room for fair trade with rules, democratic supervision of the global rules and social and good behaviour of transnational businesses. It has room for respect for human values and societies in preference to commercial interests. It allows for a modern and open world, and interest in, and respect for, each other’s differences on the basis of a common, recognised rule of law. This rule of law comprises the right to an opportunity to shape one’s own life.
I should now like to return to the subject of Monterrey and the Spanish Presidency’s failure to translate the specific agreements of our Ministers for Development and Cooperation last week into an agreement to take practical steps towards achieving a contribution of 0.7% of GNP. It is not acceptable that we should first act as a satellite to the United States, which puts money and its own values first, before closing the poverty gap. We want broad-based security, worldwide, and demand that the pledge to ensure that by 2015 all boys and girls can attend school while being healthy and well-fed, be honoured. We, as Socialists, demand in the European Parliament that the Spanish Presidency honour this pledge. This is our contribution to world peace, and this is how we want to translate the lessons of Porto Alegre and New York in this world into a new role for Europe."@en1
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