Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-10-Speech-1-061"
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"en.20030210.7.1-061"2
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"Mr President, thank you, Commissioner Lamy, for an interesting introduction to this discussion. I believe first of all that, as long as the crisis in connection with Iraq continues, it is difficult to talk about these two meetings and the globalisation debate as such. If no constructive solution can be found to that crisis, and preferably a non-violent solution, I believe that our debate on globalisation and the attempts to find constructive solutions to a series of constituent problems will be damaged for a long time to come.
This debate has gone on for no more than approximately ten years. I amused myself the other day by looking up the word ‘globalisation’ in a dictionary from the beginning of the 1990s. It was not even to be found, so this is a relatively new debate. Nonetheless, we can see how it goes in different phases. What I take to be the message from both Davos and Porto Alegre is that what is now before us is incredibly important and interesting, namely to try more clearly to define the rules and the framework within which we must live for the foreseeable future. It is hardly a case of being in favour of, or against, a market economy. Rather, it is a question of which rules and which frameworks are to apply in the market economy that has now largely spread throughout the world.
Quite obviously, there are a number of deficiencies and problems at present. Allow me to address a couple of issues. First of all, poverty and the situation of the poorest countries. It is hard to see how many of today’s poorest countries are to be able to hold their own in the evermore knowledge-oriented economy that is being developed. Trade is important, of course. I agree that we can do a lot to make things easier for the poorest countries, especially in the areas of agriculture and textiles. That is something we must do, too, but, in the case of countries that have almost nothing but raw materials to offer on the market, it is difficult to see their being able in the long term to provide themselves with a stable foundation if we do not, in a quite different way, help them to develop and build up their capacity. Factors as far back in the process as research and research institutions have a role to play in training and the development of trade and industry etc. As the trade system operates at present, with a number of countries entirely dependent upon raw materials which, moreover, have fallen in price, the situation is coming to resemble a boxing match between a heavyweight and a lightweight boxer. I believe we must adopt a quite different and much more generous approach to this area when it comes to issues of capacity.
A second issue is the whole set of problems in connection with the environment. As long ago as at the Rio Conference, it was observed that current patterns of production and consumption are not sustainable in a world with six, seven or perhaps eight billion people living at approximately our level. The solution is not, of course, to hold back development in the poor countries. Rather, it must be to develop completely new technologies. Commissioner, I am afraid that we are doing much too little to try to help promote technological advance in the poor countries. This is an area in which we could do very much more. There is no reason whatsoever why, when it comes to energy production, transport, chemicals, agriculture and waste management, all these poor countries should have to go through exactly the same phases as we ourselves have done in our own development. It must be possible to give an impetus to technological advance in a quite different way, but then that would also require more in the way of targeted aid in this area.
These are just a couple of proposals for giving some focus to this debate on globalisation and its framework, rules and basic conditions. In conclusion, I want to argue that Europe and the EU that is now developing in relation to the Convention must adopt a strong leading role in this area if we are to obtain constructive development."@en1
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