Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-15-Speech-2-720-000"
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"en.20111115.34.2-720-000"2
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"Mr President, that was really one of the most heated debates I have heard on development cooperation and that is why I will pick only a couple of issues that I think should be highlighted.
In terms of financial volumes, 0.7% of GNI is really a very small amount of money. And for new Member States, it is only 0.33%.
Second, development aid is clearly a form of investment: investment in our security. To take just one example, the EU’s Operation Atalanta to combat piracy has cost, I am afraid, more than all the development aid that we have provided.
The root causes of piracy are not to be found at sea, but on land. This is just one example. If people are dying from poverty, with no access to food, they will go out to rob others. So it is very clear where there is investment in people.
We should also learn courage from our African friends. 200 soldiers, mostly from Burundi but also from Uganda, have died this year fighting and protecting the Somali civilian population. 200 of them died, 800 are injured. What they say is that when there were difficult times in Burundi, they got help. It is about solidarity. And if there is solidarity inside the European Union, we should also have solidarity with the poorest nations in the world.
To answer Mr Kelly’s question on NGOs, we are rich because of our civil society. I know that there are a lot of issues such as whether NGOs should be more streamlined, but I think NGOs are an asset to our society. Even if their activities are not always fully efficient, they are doing what they do from the heart and I do not think we should try to limit them.
At the same time, the EU basically provides support through states where we can. Where we cannot, NGOs are the most effective mechanism to provide support for people on the ground.
On differentiation, the Agenda for Change is very clear. There will only be support to the countries most in need. By developing the fight against poverty, we can increase our support to them.
My last point is on John Bufton’s comment: it is wrong. We are accountable for each euro. Yes, the Court of Auditors and Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee look at how we spend – and how we document – each and every euro. There is what we call an ‘error rate’, but for these operations, we put all the preconditions in place to monitor each euro spent and ensure that it is spent according to the needs, and to the benefit, of the poorest people."@en1
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