Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-28-Speech-3-132"
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"en.20071128.17.3-132"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, it was astonishing to hear you talking about the negotiations as though nothing had gone awry and everything had gone swimmingly for the Commission.
In the last few months, we – here in Parliament – have pointed out on several occasions that the Commission has overburdened the negotiations with the ACP countries. We pointed out that an agreement on goods was enough to meet the WTO conditions and that an agreement on the Singapore issues was not essential. This criticism fell on deaf ears in the Commission; indeed, the Commission brushed our criticism aside. Your abrupt change of course towards interim ‘goods-only’ agreements is too little, too late. ‘Goods-only’ at this stage is a confession of failure caused by your own lack of insight. It would have done you more credit had you admitted self-critically for once that your negotiating strategy was a mistake.
The second big mistake was the way in which the negotiations were conducted. They were obviously conducted as if they were simply about an ordinary free trade agreement, not a development-based framework agreement. The ACP countries were unanimous in complaining that they were put under pressure, and this testifies to the miserable atmosphere at the negotiations. We heard this message very clearly in Kigali, and I must say to the Commission that the tone of negotiations is very important too, not just the substance.
It is vital to avoiding making yet another big mistake. We now need a solution for those non-LDC countries which do not feel able to sign up at present. We must avoid a collapse of trade relations, so we need a proposal for a transitional arrangement for 2008."@en1
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