Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-13-Speech-4-020"
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"en.20080313.2.4-020"2
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"Congratulations to the rapporteur, Mrs Budreikaitė, for the report, which must have taken a lot of time and effort to prepare. It is uplifting to know that in such a short period of time the new Member States have transformed themselves from being assistance recipients to assistance donors. However, most – if not all – of these countries might struggle to achieve the objective of allocating 0.17% of GDP to development assistance by 2010.
What could be the reason? The countries that acceded to the EU in the 21st century are still being stifled by ethnocentrism. They feel that they have suffered the most, are struggling and need the most assistance. Nevertheless, being a part of the EU and participating in development cooperation helps to eliminate narrow-mindedness.
Today in Lithuania, where development assistance projects were met with scepticism until recently, the majority of the population believe that such assistance is welcome and necessary. The new Member States are in the advantageous position of being able to share the experience of the transitional period with other regions of the world. We are familiar with the difficulties that our close neighbours in Central Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia are struggling with, as we have recently experienced similar hardships ourselves.
However, we need to focus our attention and assistance a little further still. It is quite difficult to see poverty in African and Asian countries from the viewpoint of Vilnius, Warsaw, Budapest or Bucharest, but we have to realise that by assisting those in need today we are actually helping ourselves. Every country on this planet is connected with others, as in the ‘law of connected vessels’. The increasing gap between the richest and poorest countries, as well as the unstoppable flood of economic migrants, is eroding the world’s foundations.
Alongside state assistance, civil society organisations play a very important role. The value of money and goods collected through non-governmental organisations, schools and the Church is not very great but is highly appreciated."@en1
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