Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-285"
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"en.20071211.37.2-285"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, following the EU-Africa Summit I wish to make a few remarks as a kind of summary of this important encounter. As the Commissioner said, the results of the summit would certainly appear to be positive.
First of all, for months, or more than months, we have been asking the Commission to review the economic partnership agreement agenda and contents. On each occasion, the Commission, or Commission representatives, told us that our criticisms were not shared by any African government officials or partners, and that we were merely relaying, for I remember the response, the perverse arguments of a number of large NGOs. In Lisbon, there was a stream of criticism from the vast majority of African Heads of State and Government with regard to methodology and also the contents of negotiations. A clear call went out to take the time to sign up fair and balanced agreements in compliance with EU commitments towards African development.
For a long time now we have been asking the Commission to ensure genuine coherence among its various policies. We agree that several decades of European development cooperation with Africa have failed, but we would maintain that the limits of this cooperation have been constantly set by the Commission, taking back in one area what it gave in another. Post-Lisbon, it is therefore obvious that the issue is not about substituting trade for cooperation, but about making both policies pursue the same objective of sustainable development.
In relation to food security, the fight against disease, human rights and migration, especially support for more fragile states, we have also constantly asked the Commission to do more and better for and with Africa. We can see that this will be the case from now on, and that is good. It can no longer be ignored, however, that the demands of this Parliament are the demands of ordinary African citizens, and also of their political representatives. We are therefore pleased that the Parliaments, so long ignored in this process, have finally been included. We hope that the next summit will provide the opportunity to gauge the effectiveness of the new strategy more rapidly and without too much delay, in order to confirm the suitability of the objectives and achievements."@en1
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