1. EUROSTEP ISSUE STATEMENT ON NEW EU-AFRICA PARTNERSHIP IN ADVANCE OF THE INFORMAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL DEBTATE
Eurostep have sent a statement on a new EU-Africa Partnership to EU Development Ministers and the EU Development Commissioner in advance of the debate on the issue at the EU Informal Development Council in Lisbon on 28-29 January.
In the statement Eurostep emphasise that the overall goal of a new EU-Africa Partnership should be poverty eradication. The EU and its Member States have agreed to commitments made at international UN Conferences that are intended to contribute towards the eradication of poverty. Africa is the continent with the highest proportion of the population living in poverty. According to the World Bank, 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa survive on less than $1 a day.
As a means of addressing poverty eradication, Eurostep call on the EU to include in the debate on EU-Africa partnership issues, relating to conflict prevention in Africa, integration of African economies into the global economy, education, HIV/AIDS, financial resources, debt, and support for civil society in Africa.
Eurostep also call on the EU to institutionalise dialogue at the highest political level between the EU and Africa, i.e. to hold regular EU-Africa Summits. While the EU holds regular summits with other regions such as Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean, to date no summits have been held with Africa.
On conflict prevention, Eurostep call on the EU to tighten its code of conduct on arms by setting up a system which prevents one EU member state capturing an arms contract to sell arms to Africa that another EU member state has refused. In addition the EU should regulate European trade in oil and diamonds from Africa. Revenues from unregulated export of African diamonds and oil to Europe and other developed countries has been shown to fuel many of the conflicts that are raging in Africa.
Regarding integration of African economies into the global economy, Eurostep call on the EU to provide duty and quota free access for all products from African and Least Developed countries. The EU should also reduce its support to European export of agricultural goods. This excessive support destroys local African agriculture and depresses world agricultural prices.
Concerning financial resources, Eurostep point out that the share of the EU’s development aid that goes to Africa has been decreasing in recent years. Eurostep thus call on the EU to improve the mechanisms and conditions that have prevented it from disbursing funds to Africa at a faster rate. For a copy of the full Eurostep Statement you can contact the Eurostep Secretariat.
The debate in the Council will be chaired by Portugal’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Development, Luis Amado. It will tackle three areas outlined by Mr Amado: a) strengthened political dialogue, b) integration of African economies, and c)security and conflict prevention. The work will be divided into three panels. Conflict Prevention in panel 1 will be introduced by the French Minister for Development, Mr Charles Josselin. Issues on the Rule of Law and Democracy in panel 2 will be introduced by Sweden’s Minister for Development, Ms Maj-Inger Klingval. Matters on Political Conditions for Development in Africa in panel 3 will be introduced by the Dutch Development Minister, Eveline Herfkens.
According to the European press, the debate should result in the development of guidelines for future work of the Development Council. At a meeting in the Parliament this week, the Portuguese Foreign Minister, Mr Gama, stated that debate would be looking to develop a new strategic partnership with Africa. However, Mr Gama was not able to confirm whether the proposed EU-Africa Summit would take place on the planned dates of April 3-4 2000. Mr Gama said when Portugal originally proposed the Summit, it had not insisted that it take place during its Presidency. According to a EU official this is an indication that the Summit may take place during any of the Presidencies following the Portuguese Presidency.
2. COMMISSION PRESENTATION ON COHERENCE IN THE PARLIAMENT POSTPONED – COMMISSION REWRITING COMMUNICATION ON COHERENCE
The Commission’s presentation on coherence planned for the plenary session of the European Parliament on 2 February in Brussels has been postponed till the 16 February plenary session in Strasbourg. Meanwhile Eurostep has learnt that the communication on coherence that was prepared by the Commission’s Development Directorate, and discussed in last week’s PAF, has not been approved by the Commission (see PAF 164). According to certain sources, while the entire Directorate for Development including the Development Commissioner were behind the document, other Commission Directorates were against the approval of the communication. The Directorate for Development now have the task of rewriting the communication. The communication might not be ready for presentation at the next EU Development Council in May.
You may recall that the rejected communication presented a very frank picture of the state of (in)coherence of EC policies, identifying the incoherence of EU Member State policies as one of the factors that cause incoherent EC policies. The communication also put forward proposals from the Commission on how to address the problem of incoherence.
3. COMMISSION SET UP TIGHT TIME TABLE FOR CONSULTATIONS ON EU OVERALL POLICY STATEMENT ON AID – REPORT ON EU 98 BUDGET RAISES QUESTIONS
At a meeting last week, Commission officials informed NGOs on its timetable for drafting and discussing the preparation of the EC’s Overall Policy Statement on Aid. The first draft will be ready by 14 February 2000. A two-week consultation process on the draft will then be launched with civil society and the private sector, including a seminar prepared by the EU Liaison Committee of NGDOs and the Commission on 24 February in Brussels. The Commission will adopt the Statement at the beginning of March. Following this, the EU Council will deliberate over the Statement in order to adopt a resolution on EC aid policy at the next EU Development Council on May 18.
Several NGOs have criticised the tight consultations process set up by the Commission as it does not provide adequate time for consultations on a major document that could determine EC Development Policy for years to come. The Commission does not make any provision for this, despite stating its wish to involve southern NGOs in consultations. Commission officials stated that the Commission will not even be setting up a discussion on the World-Wide Web. According to them this will not be manageable.
Following the evaluation of EC Development aid, last year the Council called on the Commission “to elaborate after the widest consultation possible a first proposal for the overall policy statement by the first half of 2000”.
A draft report on the discharge of the EU’s 98 budget by MEP Max van den Berg (NL) completed this week, also raises questions on the EC’s policy on aid. The report makes several proposals that could be taken up by the drafters of the Overall Statement on Aid. The draft report on the discharge of the 98 budget is available from the Eurostep Secretariat for Eurostep Members. The deadline for comments on this report is 10 February 2000.
4. EU TRADE COMMISSIONER PRESENTS PLANS TO RELAUNCH WTO TRADE ROUND
Pascal Lamy, the EU trade Commissioner, this week presented the European Commission’s plans to launch a new comprehensive WTO trade round at the European Parliament. The Commissioner stated that that EU’s approach towards the broad agenda of a new round is still valid and that the negotiations should be launched this year (no need to wait for the US elections). He did however admit that the EU would have to better take in consideration the concerns of developing countries and that the way the WTO functions of the WTO needs to be improved.
The Commissioner’s plans are encapsulated in three documents, two of which are completed, i.e. “WTO New Round: Way Forward” and “Improving the functioning of the WTO: Suggestions for a way forward”. The third document on implementation issues is being prepared. According to Marc Maes of Belgian NGO network NCOS, the Commission seems to have understood that it cannot go forward without dealing with the demands from the South on implementation issues. However on reform of the WTO, the Commission’s proposals do not address the question on how to make the WTO more representative. The proposed reforms address the issue of external transparency towards NGOs and companies, but fail to address the issue of internal transparency towards the WTO’s own members.
Mr Lamy and the
Secretary General of the WTO, Mr Mike Moore, will attend a
hearing at the European Parliament on February 21 at the European
Parliament in Strasbourg.