Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-28-Speech-3-160"
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".
I would like to start by thanking the Commissioner, for this report has come back to the Committee on Development and Cooperation a number of times and this has contributed to enriching the debate within the committee. I would also like to thank the Chairman of the committee and all the group coordinators, and all the Members who have contributed to the preparation of this report, taking up, with great sensitivity, my invitation to make this report a document which compels broad consensus and a broad majority in Parliament, reflecting all the positions expressed by the European Parliament. Lastly, I would also like to thank the draftspeople of the other committees: Mrs Carrilho of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, Mrs Haug of the Committee on Budgets, Mrs Lucas of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy and Mrs Sörensen of the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, who have contributed their opinions to this report.
The report is based on a number of fundamental principles: restoring the balance of nature in order to protect the environment; protecting the food chain as a way of protecting the ecosystem; developing a self-sufficient, sustainable economy; restricting exploitative industrial monocultures; and then, restoring the balance of nature also in terms of anthropological progress and responsible relationships between man and woman, adult and child, workers and elderly people, based on a unit of society made of a man, a woman and children.
Another principle is that of responsible, self-administered development, as a cultural factor, of the need for, and the development of a higher standard of living: projects which are self-created, in order to promote the development of local culture and help people to look beyond customs originating from local culture; then awareness of the role of the institutions and the need to involve the private sector
in programmes encouraging development; lastly, great, very great attention to the world of children, who, in the political world, are an invisible group of society with no voice or rights; moreover, a powerful role for women, recognising the role that women have always had in society, starting with the family and the work place.
It was with on the basis of these guidelines that the debate on the European Commission's communication took place. We found the debate somewhat simplistic compared to what ought to be the European Union's perspectives within this world of development. And so, since it has not been possible to produce a coherent report on such a complex work, I feel simply that I must say that the conditions of poor people are worse today than in 1960, that is 40 years ago, that the number of children in school has fallen and that people are not being considered as individuals, as individual people, but that all the poor people in the world are being lumped together as one economic statistic.
Debt is also an issue which can and must be tackled, provided that we succeed in monitoring the States' budgets in order to reclassify budget items and dedicate them to the eradication of poverty. Similarly, rural development must be improved, properly valued and increased, apart from anything else to offset the rush to build huge cities.
Then, with regard to conflict prevention, I feel that this issue has been dealt with more or less exhaustively in Mrs Carrilho's opinion on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, and that it too can be tackled through the regionalisation of development policy.
I would stress one further point. It would appear that there is a tendency to attempt to deal with the issues of development and eradicating poverty by entrusting this task to the multinationals. I do not feel that the multinationals are the right organisations for the task. Rather, the role of the NGOs, who should have a direct relationship with
the peoples of developing countries, should be strengthened.
In conclusion, I do not know whether this report will enable us to deal with these issues, but I do know that there are many children, women and men in need of our help, and we must protect them."@en1
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