Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-204"
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"en.20060322.16.3-204"2
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".
Mr President, Mrs Morgantini’s report was very much welcomed by the Committee on Development because it is clear about the fundamental principles on which economic partnership should be based.
As Commissioner Michel and Commissioner Mandelson have stated, economic partnership agreements must be development-friendly. That means that liberalisation must, of necessity, be asymmetrical. There can be no question of forcing ACP countries to open up their markets to European goods until their own domestic markets are much more firmly established. From the European side, we can offer aid for trade measures to help with this market-building and with supply-side constraints.
Of the amendments tabled for Plenary, the ALDE Group will be supporting those which underline that the pace of market opening should be driven by the ACP and that there is scope for the EU to work much more closely with ACP partners in world trade negotiations. Together, the ACP countries and the EU form a substantial block.
The ALDE Group will also be supporting those amendments from the PPE-DE Group which offer improved wording and avoid overly restrictive definitions of, for instance, decent working benchmarks.
Some NGOs have campaigned on a simple platform of ‘no’ to EPAs, but that could be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The regional integration which is part of the EPA process will help ACP countries to prosper, to increase South-South trade and the removal of tariff barriers between neighbouring ACP countries.
The essential point at every stage of the EPA negotiating process is to ensure that the outcome works in favour of development. I hope the Commission will at all times be genuinely and consistently guided by that principle and by this report."@en1
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