Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-24-Speech-3-357"
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"en.20071024.40.3-357"2
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"Madam President, I am rather surprised to find myself agreeing with a colleague from the other side of the House so wholeheartedly.
I congratulate Ms Martens on her report. There have been a lot of excellent words said in this Chamber this afternoon, but we have failed Africa. We have failed Africa in the past and, as the rapporteur on EPAs, I hope that this European Union will not fail Africa again.
Yesterday the Commission published a communication on EPAs, which at long last acknowledged the impossibility of completing negotiations by the end of 2007, as was previously planned and reported in my report. But the Commission continues to insist that Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries must commit to signing up fully to EPAs in 2008 and that some countries in the region should sign up to EPAs while others do not. Is that not unbelievably farcical!
Too much is unclear and uncertain in these talks, with so little time left. The communication is deliberately vague and, while I understand what it is, it worries me: I never sign up to a deal about something that I do not understand, and yet we are asking Africa to do precisely that.
Furthermore, these new proposals to create subregional agreements within regions with African countries which are willing to sign up would create a spaghetti-like mess of different agreements in neighbouring countries.
The idea that other countries and ACP regions should join later would mean them signing up to a deal they had not negotiated. How is that a good idea? Were EPAs not meant to be about regional integration?
So who is focusing on implementation, monitoring mechanisms and impact assessments while negotiating parties struggle to find an agreement on these smaller packages? ACP countries should not have to choose between trade agreements which may damage their local/regional markets or barriers which cripple their export markets. There is still a choice to be made, and last-minute policy shifts from the Commission do nothing to restore the confidence of the disconnected."@en1
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