Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-154"
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"en.20020703.4.3-154"2
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"Mr President, at the recent World Food Summit held in Rome, 182 nations renewed their commitment to putting an end to the tragedy of hunger in the world, in which there are still 800 million people who are malnourished. Sadly, five years on from the first summit in 1996, we have to acknowledge that we have clearly failed in our aim of halving this figure by 2015. It is imperative that this discrepancy between promises and reality is overcome.
The need to combat this tragedy is also reinforced by the thought that hunger is both a cause and an effect of poverty. A starving man is not a free man: he is a desperate man and can easily be persuaded to take part in desperate actions such as conflicts, international crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal immigration and terrorism. There is no doubt that the western world needs to pay much greater attention to this, and the commitment by the industrialised countries to donate 0.7% of their gross domestic product is more relevant now than ever. It was John F. Kennedy who said that no one can be considered rich if their neighbours are poor. That is why we need practical action and projects. We have to act immediately to prevent a further 2 billion people joining the 4 billion who are currently cut off from wealth, as the demographic studies forecast.
Good governance in these developing countries is, however, an essential prerequisite if the cooperation which is vital for the achievement of the objectives we have set is to be strengthened. Access to information, as the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Berlusconi, has proposed, rather than failure to deliver on undertakings, as Mr Rod has observed, and the new model of digital state organisation to combat corruption and increase efficiency would certainly make any use of development aid more transparent.
Another matter that urgently needs addressing through a conference of FAO countries is that of the proper operation of the agency itself. The way it works and is managed needs to be reformed and rationalised in order to improve its transparency and efficiency and to achieve more suitable actions and results. At Johannesburg, I will have the opportunity, together with the delegation from the European Parliament, to see whether the European Union will really be able to give – and make others give – tangible political commitments with precise deadlines, the achievement of which will have to be based on effective partnership."@en1
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