Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-25-Speech-3-041"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020925.1.3-041"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I would like right away to enlarge on Mr Wijkman's analogy with Hans Christian Andersen's story of the king's new clothes. I do think that there are enough Members of this House, who, on finding the king totally naked, would say so out loud in the plenary. I believe it is very difficult to assess either the role of the European Union or the results of the Johannesburg Summit. None of us is satisfied with the results. We would, in various areas, have preferred results that went further.
I would, though, like to say that I see the European Union's – Europe's – role as having been a good one and one that was also well coordinated. It should also be said at this juncture that, on the most important demands, coordination between the European Union and the candidate countries worked. I am of course not satisfied with the Commission's attitude towards us, or with the information policy. I want to address Commissioner Nielson directly in saying that we did not expect all our demands to be met, but it is sometimes the case that the tone is what matters in music, and at times our side was dissatisfied with the way the parliamentarians were negotiated with or spoken to.
I took part in this delegation as a member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation, and one of the major topics in Johannesburg was of course the way in which development is financed. It was also clear that we will not go back to the way things were before Monterrey. One generally wonders whether it makes sense to stage UN summits of this sort at short intervals and then end up with little substance to the agenda at a summit on sustainability. That, though, is the responsibility not of the Commission, or of Parliament, but of the United Nations.
The question I want to put to the Commission is a very straightforward one: how will we monitor the Monterrey undertaking to allocate an average of 0.39% of gross domestic product to development cooperation with effect from 2006? Will Parliament receive reports on development? I am from Austria, and on this point I am less than proud of my own country, which is among those at the bottom of the league as regards support for development cooperation. Now for the actual question. I know that you cannot draw up the national budgets, but what form will follow-up take
including as regards Parliament?
Something I found quite absent from Johannesburg was the issue of population growth and that of reproductive health. I found the formulations in the final text to be woolly, to say the least. There is reference in them to health and to mothers, but not to reproductive health, which, along with family planning, I believe to be essential issues in sustainable development. I would, however, like to express my gratitude for the clear position that the European Union has taken up on these issues. We know that America, with the fundamentalist states, has stood in the way of progress of every kind and that the requirements of the Cairo Action Programme on reproductive health are far from being complied with."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples