Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-289"
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"en.20070523.21.3-289"2
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"Madam President, as we all know, the development of Nigeria is crucially important for the African continent. Nigeria is one of the largest countries in Africa and, just as it has done in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the European Union has put effort into organising elections and observing elections there.
That being said, the chaotic and violent situation that reigns in Nigeria, especially in the delta region, must open our eyes to a number of issues – obvious and outstanding issues. As in Congo, the issue of the exploitation of raw materials and oil plays an extremely important role in the destabilisation of this country, in the atmosphere of violence and civil war that has come about there.
On this point, I believe that we should be very pro-active in supporting the civil society and the democrats, who are fighting to obtain information and transparency on the exploitation of the resources and who are also seeking to preserve their resources. The delta region is totally devastated and plagued by murderous conflicts, and the manœuvres of the Nigerian army in this area sometimes do more harm than good.
I also believe that the European Union should be far stricter in making the development aid that it provides conditional on the fight against corruption and on the very clear inclusion in the State budget of the profits made from oil and minerals, because it is all the same absolutely scandalous that the people of Nigeria, who live in a state of great poverty, do not see any benefits whatsoever from these mineral and oil profits! At a time when the price of a barrel of oil has increased, the resources should be considerable. It is therefore most unusual that this issue has not been dealt with.
Finally, progress needs to be made, too, concerning the social and environmental responsibility of large companies – Shell, in particular, has a major presence in this country, but it is not the only one – and we should also act together on these major issues, and not just on the matter of organising elections."@en1
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