Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-496"
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".
Madam President, rapporteur, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to thank and congratulate you for this excellent report, which has given me an opportunity to express myself to you on points of mutual interest.
I am convinced that the main advantage of the country strategies prepared by ACP countries in the programming of their national budgets for the 10
EDF lies in the fact that they have made governance the focus of our mutual relations. This is why, when the 10
EDF funds were allocated, we decided to introduce a governance-related incentive tranche of almost EUR 3 billion. This is not, as someone mistakenly said, another form of conditionality, but a premium allocated based on the relevance, realism and ambition of the governance plans drawn up by our partners.
In the interests of autonomy and transparency, governance plans are annexed to the strategy papers and are therefore accessible to everyone. Similarly, criteria such as appropriation, effectiveness and focus on results have led me to call for greater use of budgetary support than in conventional projects.
45% of our aid for ACP countries will be allocated out of national budgets, both as budgetary support for specific sectors and as general budgetary support. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify some points of the report, which seem to have arisen from a misunderstanding.
The report criticises the lack of funding for the health and education sectors. This is long-standing quarrel between the European Parliament and the Commission, I know. I can only repeat that the eradication of poverty and the achievement of the MDGs cannot happen solely through direct aid for the health and education sectors. Obviously, a significant proportion of general or sectoral budgetary support, when it is allocated, will be used to pay wages, for example of teachers, to build health clinics and to provide social services. I am convinced that at least 20%, or 6% in total, has been qualified and directly indicated. Obviously the rest will come from direct or sectoral aid, although I promise to try to quantify and prove this.
By the way, obviously we do not have the right to choose sectors for our partners; it is up to them to choose these. Choices are also made based on bilateral aid. Many countries choose health or education for example, but it is a good question and so I will try to objectify it and give you the results.
Finally, you are right about the gender dimension. I am the first person to recognise the role of women in development and the need to promote this role. However, yet again, in the interests of efficiency, Parliament, the Council and the Commission have been forced to recognise, with the adoption of the European consensus, that gender issues, taking into account their implications, have a cross-disciplinary dimension and that they must therefore be integrated into all relevant aid programmes, preferably within the limited framework of a particular sector.
Where you do have my full support is where you commented on EDF funding for the African Peace Facility; no one can deny the evident links between development and security. Nevertheless, financing for peacekeeping actions should not be classed as development or deducted from development resources.
Therefore, in principle, you are right. Unfortunately, you know how these things work. I think that it is absolutely crucial to lay the emphasis, as you are doing, on national parliaments, to structure and institutionalise consultation with governments and to increase the role of civil society while building its capacity and representativeness so that it can become a driver of development and democratic openness.
Thank you for this report, which I promise I will put to good use and from which I will undeniably draw inspiration.
I would also like to say that I am pleased with the similarities between the viewpoints of our institutions, as exemplified by this report. It is clear that the overarching aim of our actions is first and foremost the fight against poverty in the context of the Millennium Development Goals.
In this sense, the 10
European Development Fund, which is about to be launched, is the first real opportunity for the European Union to deploy the European consensus and agenda on the efficiency of aid. Firstly, the amount. The budget has significantly increased, from EUR 17.9 billion for the 9th EDF to EUR 22.6 billion for the 10
EDF.
I am also delighted to inform you that, for the first time in the EDF’s history and so since European cooperation began, the Commission has been able to commit all remaining balances from previous EDFs at 31 January 2007, without a single euro being lost due to the sunset clause imposed by Member States on the 9th EDF, as the report asks.
In the meantime, nearly all country strategies of the 10
EDF have been completed. So far, 58 strategy papers have been forwarded to the EDF Committee, 14 are expected between now and next June and plans for their implementation are already under way.
On its ratification by the ACP, the 10
EDF could be rolled out immediately and without any hangover from the past, while its implementation cycle could be aligned with the previous budgetary cycle. This is just the first step, and I will continue to campaign, as you do, for full budgetisation of the EDF.
Your support is also vital for us to be able, once and for all, to shift cooperation with ACP countries away from an intergovernmental approach and to integrate it fully into the Community budget and codecision procedures.
Budgetisation will also satisfy your demands, which I fully endorse, for full democratic scrutiny of the EDF.
We have already agreed on the principle that strategy papers must be automatically forwarded to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Clearly this is not enough; I have already instructed our delegations to send country strategy papers to members of national parliaments and I am also personally committed to raising awareness in our partner countries so that they can involve their national parliaments in monitoring Community cooperation. A first meeting with the Ghanaian government looks set to take place, although as you know, the last-minute change to my calendar – in other words the SADEC Summit on Zimbabwe, which I have just come back from – forced me to postpone it."@en1
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