Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-11-Speech-1-051"
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"en.20020311.4.1-051"2
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"Six months on from the tragic events of 11 September, now must be the time to reassert the need for effective global governance. While I welcome the Commissioner's statement, I regret the fact that the Commission's work has not been more balanced – recognising, for example, that there is a dark side to globalisation, too – and has not been more ambitious. Why did the Commission not take up Mr Verhofstadt's suggestion that we should have a G8 not based on wealth and composed of the richest nations, but based on population and composed of the world's major regional bodies, thereby involving the African Union, Mercosur, the South Asian Area of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and so on?
Globalism has led to a world of interconnected communities. Technology and language learning have transformed our ability to communicate. Trade and investment have changed our economic perspectives and vastly increased our wealth. Travel has opened up new horizons and new opportunities for human contact. And yet all this has not come without a cost, because criminals have organised themselves into global networks; humankind's damage to our natural environment threatens the future viability of life on our planet; and powerlessness and alienation are restricting opportunities for far too many to develop their own abilities and to improve the lot of themselves and their families. History, Mr President, suggests that if the world were truly a global village, many more would be shocked by the misery of the poor. Of 6 billion human beings, half are living on less than EUR 2 per day and 800 million are going to sleep hungry every night.
I say, therefore, to our friends on the Right that yes, the market economy, if intelligently regulated, is the most powerful instrument known to mankind to lift people out of poverty. That we have not yet learned to use it properly, however, is shown by financial crises, by environmental degradation and by the continued spread of preventable disease. Moreover, our failure to reach 0.7% of GDP in development aid is depriving the poor of EUR 100 billion per annum.
I say to the Left that we need to reform our trade policies because aid and debt relief for developing countries without access to our markets can be nothing more than a palliative.
To the Greens I would say that access to scientific progress is also important. It is the key to better nutrition, to improved health and life expectancy and to rising living standards. We must not starve the developing world of the benefits of innovation.
The challenge to humankind is to establish effective instruments of international government. The United Nations, the international financial institutions, NATO, etc. have not succeeded as much as they should. Yet, in the European Union we may have a model for wider global governance. We need from our current leaders vision and commitment such as that shown by the founders of the Union. It involves the self-confidence to engage with the world economic forum, the world social forum and others and the self-confidence to say to our friends in the United States that their legitimate sense of vulnerability after 11 September should not lead them in a unilateralist direction – whether in matters relating to military or economic security, the environment or fighting crime. Global problems require global solutions."@en1
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