Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-03-Speech-1-187"
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"en.20060403.14.1-187"2
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"Mr President, I should like to begin by paying tribute to the remarkable job done by my friend, Mr Papastamkos, the former Greek Minister for Economic Affairs, in terms of piecing the facts together and finding a compromise, and I should like, Commissioner, to ask you to pass on my thanks to Mr Mandelson for all the work he has done.
The greatest success of the Hong Kong Conference was the fact that it was not a failure. The stage that we are now at is crucial for the Earth’s balance. I have two proposals and one remark to make. Firstly, as regards the suspension of export subsidies in 2013, I should like to return to the proposal to set up an independent audit of all forms of tangible and intangible aid, and this so as to put a stop to the hypocrisy governing this matter. Furthermore, we must place emphasis on important planning efforts, enabling quantitative and qualitative assessments to be made of the economic and social impact in Europe, in terms, for instance, of employment in the context of these negotiations. Some of our important economic sectors, such as the agri-foodstuff industries, are very vulnerable in these negotiations, and the least we can do is to provide them with information.
Lastly, we need to tackle the issue of the link between international trade, wealth and poverty because it is vital that economies – particularly those in the West – which create their wealth by adhering to market principles, help implement real mechanisms for eradicating poverty in the world. If we, as democrats, do not do so, then we will pay a very high price in political terms, not least by witnessing a rise in extremism. There are Members in our European Parliament who believe that international trade creates poverty and not wealth. As far as we, in the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, are concerned, we believe that the opposite is true. In the past, the world dealt with its great upheavals by means of wars, and, today, military wars have been replaced by economic wars, with two differences: instead of people dying, we have people out of work, and we do not know who the enemy is. In this affair, and faced with the rise in national self-interest which, at the end of the day, is only the sum of individuals’ self-interest, the European Union has a great deal at stake. During the debates on our European Constitution, we had explained that we needed a more political Europe in order to exist in a world that is becoming more complex by the day. If our fellow citizens do have any doubts about the usefulness of the European Union in this global trial of strength, then this will be yet another blow to our great European project."@en1
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