Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-19-Speech-4-217"
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"en.20060119.27.4-217"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Bowis and the various speakers for having truly highlighted an issue which is too often forgotten and which illustrates particularly serious aspects of the human dramas that come with poverty.
The education of disabled children, for example, is an integral part of education strategies in many developing countries, such as Uganda or Ethiopia. This issue is systematically dealt with within the framework of the programming and implementation dialogue between the Commission and the governments of the partner countries. I must say that the discussion that we have held today has come just at the right moment.
From next week, and until April, I shall be visiting all of the regions that correspond to the regional organisations. I shall therefore be debating, discussing and defining and also listening to individual countries and regional organisations in order to try – as I had promised in the general development policy statement – to help our partners to develop or to propose coherent programmes that are genuinely convergent. That is not an easy task, because each partner keeps to its own domain.
I must tell you, Mr Bowis, that I entirely share your view: so far, in the poor countries where many people are suffering, disabled people have been a category apart. For example, I have discovered genuine dramas, the extent of which is unimaginable, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is normal for people to indulge in the hunting of ‘child-witchdoctors’. These are the children known as ‘child-witchdoctors’ simply because they are street children, who live alone and who are hunted down as if they were animals. It is horrific! I have held political dialogue with the DRC and certain local associations on programmes which will be funded with a view to combating this phenomenon. I have seen and met these children. It is absolutely horrendous; there is no way to describe it. Not only do they suffer from physical handicaps, but sometimes also from mental handicaps.
Armed, therefore, with the road map, the guidelines and the motion for a resolution that you will undoubtedly adopt, I promise you that I will make a point of dealing with this issue in all of the seminars and bilateral meetings that I hold in each country. In the country strategy papers, I shall ask for programmes and projects to be proposed directly involving these children and these disabled people.
I believe that this has come at a really good time and I thank you for drawing my attention to this problem, because in the heat of action, we tend to neglect certain issues, and though it is true that the partner countries must make proposals, we must also make our own suggestions. Our partners usually focus on the problems which they see as priorities, but they ignore the marginal categories, the rejects, with all the dramatic consequences that that implies.
On my return from these working visits on the country strategy papers, therefore, the objective of which is to produce a proposal on programming common to the Member States and the Commission, with a view to becoming more effective and consistent in the definition of our development programme, I propose that I present you with a report. I shall produce a report to Parliament at the beginning of April on the proposals or projects to which we have committed ourselves and, together, we shall evaluate the programme and any progress that has been made.
I do not believe I can offer you anything more: I promise that I will use your motion for a resolution as a speaking note, and you will then judge whether any significant progress has been made. I promise to be systematic in the steps I take and to report to you objectively. I promise that I will do everything in my power to convince the partner States to make this dramatic issue an essential element of their social policy, of their education policy and of their cultural policy.
I know of certain cultural projects aimed at groups of disabled people which have enabled young people to express themselves through art. There is a whole range of possibilities, and I can assure you that it is in no way a one-off appeal that I am making. You have made me very much more aware of this problem to which we often do not pay sufficient attention. I hope that, in April, I will be able to show you that the work of Parliament and the initiatives you have taken have not fallen on deaf ears: your proposal will be given the full place it deserves, since I am convinced that this is a just cause."@en1
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