Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-24-Speech-3-248"
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"en.20030924.6.3-248"2
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"Madam President, I would first like to thank the Commission's very professional negotiating team, Commissioner Fischler and Commissioner Lamy, because they really did everything in their power to make the conference a success. Perhaps in future we ought to bring in a rule that says anyone who walks out of the negotiations has given their approval. We were expecting tough, rigorous negotiation, but we lost our partners along the way. In other words, the poor will remain poor and the rich will remain rich. That is not something for us to be happy about.
Mrs Lucas said earlier that poorer countries should have the right to promote their own national industries. Does she mean by that monopolistic companies owned by a handful of ministers who are worried that competition rules and investment protection agreements will put their own assets at risk? It might be helpful here to involve national members of parliament, opposition members, somewhat more closely, so that there can be a genuine debate in the least developed countries as well about who is to be wealthy and who is to live in total poverty. A few wealthy individuals compared with millions living in hunger. We should therefore make every effort to encourage small- and medium-sized enterprises, family companies, in these countries, to stimulate competition, and to promote well-being – and I do not mean just for a handful of people who benefit from the existence of monopolies.
That is why I believe that the Parliamentary Conference is so important, and we as Europeans should be in the vanguard here, to ensure that there is an objective and transparent debate not only here in Europe, but also and above all in the world's poorest countries. They urgently need a debate of that kind.
There is one more issue I would like to focus on: what will happen when the ‘‘peace clause’’ expires? Will we be faced with another war, a world trade war in which the poor will become even poorer?"@en1
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