1. EU TRADE
COMMISSIONER LAMY PARTICIPATES IN THE THIRD MEETING OF ASEM
– JOINT STATEMENT IN FAVOUR OF A NEW TRADE ROUND AT THE WTO
MINISTERIAL MEETING IN DOHA
At a meeting in
Hanoi, Vietnam on 10 and 11 of September representatives from the
EU and ASEM (the Asia-Europe Meeting) held an informal dialogue
in order to set up some new guidelines for the ASEM action plans
for the development of trade and investment. ASEM is a gathering
of heads-of-government from 10 Asian and the 15 EU Member States.
Its objective is to strengthen the political, economic and
cultural ties between the two regions.
According to EU
Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, it was the political will and
flexibility, which characterised the meeting that enabled the
European and Asian trade ministers to adopt a joint declaration
in favour of the launch of a new round of negotiations in Doha in
November.
Amongst the
participants there was conformity to support the WTO and the
planned round. The ministers agreed that, in order to achieve a
consensus on the launch of the round, the negotiating agenda
would have to be sufficiently broad and balanced to reflect the
interests and concerns of the WTO. During the informal
dialogue session Pascal Lamy stressed the flexibility of the EU
towards the developing world. This mainly concerns the
areas of competition, social issues, the environment etc.
2. FRENCH CONCERNS ABOUT THE SUCCESS OF
THE DOHA CONFERENCE – EU MUST PREPARE AN ALTERNATIVE
STRATEGY
At last
week’s informal ministerial conference in Bruges, EU Trade
Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, stated that the preparations for a new
trade round at the WTO Ministerial conference in Doha still
requires some work. According to Mr Lamy, the majority of WTO
members support a launch of a new trade round, but France finds
itself in opposition, demanding that the EU prepare some kind of
a plan B in order to prevent another breakdown of the launch of
the round. French Secretary of State, François Huwart,
supported the idea of, if necessary, suspending the 4th
ministerial conference of the WTO till a year later. This period
of “transition” would provide the developing countries
with some more concrete responses to their concerns such as
access to medicines. However, Commissioner Lamy does not
share this view. The Trade Commissioner argues that he has a
mandate supported by the Council and the Parliament, and that a
new trade round would either be launched on his mandate or it
would not be inaugurated on the basis of his mandate.
3. RESPONSES IN THE EU TO TERRORIST
ATTACK IN THE US- DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONER CANCELS MISSION TO
PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN
EU top officials were quick this week to condemn the terrorist
attacks carried out against the USA this week. Guy Verhofstadt
(Prime Minister of Belgium, representing the Belgian Presidency
of the EU), Romano Prodi (the President of the European
Commission) and Nicole Fontaine (President of the European
Parliament) were among the top EU officials that denounced the
terrorist attacks.
EU Development Commissioner, Poul Nielson, who also expressed his
outrage at the attacks, cancelled his mission to Afghanistan and
Pakistan in view of the terrible events. Mr Nielson speaking to
the press stated:
“I
am very disappointed that I couldn’t get first hand
experience of the important work of our NGO partners in helping
Afghan people cope with the effects of war and drought. .. My
intention is to reschedule this trip at the earliest possible
opportunity.”
Among the issues
that Mr Nielson would have discussed with the Taliban in
Afghanistan was the safety of humanitarian officers in
Afghanistan
The Commission has
also announced that it is pulling out all humanitarian personnel
in Afghanistan so as not to expose them to danger. Several
European NGOs present in Afghanistan, including some member
agencies of Eurostep, are also pulling out
staff from Afghanistan.
In a speech on the
terrorist attack during a debate on the issue in the European
Parliament, MEP Hans Pert Pöttering, (German, Christian
Democrat) cautioned that terrorism and the Islamic world should
not be put in the same bag. He said “we must
clearly state that we wish to live in partnership and, if
possible, friendship with the Arab countries.”
4. EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE DRAFT OPINION BUDGET
The Development
Committee of the European Parliament discussed and approved, last
Wednesday, the draft opinion on the 2002 draft EU budget
presented by the Commission and the Council. MEP Anders Wijkman
(Swedish, Socialist) the rapporteur, stressed the point that any
detailed discussion about the part of the EU budget pertaining to
development cooperation was made difficult not only by the way
the budget is structured but also by the overall organisation of
development cooperation activities. The most obvious problem
claimed by the rapporteur is the fact that all development
cooperation activities with the ACP countries are not included in
the EU budget, meaning that the Parliament has no real influence
on priority-setting and/or resource allocation for this important
part of EU development cooperation. However, regarding the
remaining part of EU development aid, available information is
extremely limited. The way the budget is classified makes it very
difficult to understand the detailed distribution of EU aid by
sector.
His report
called for actions to make the EU development cooperation more
focused on the fight against poverty and in this context, to give
priority to education and health measures. The ultimate aim,
said Mr Wijkman, should be a results-oriented budgetary system,
one element of which must be also the implementation of sectoral
targets within the regional budget lines, with a particular
emphasis put on the areas crucial to poverty alleviation, in
particular health and education allocations.
In support of
the proposal of Mr. Howitt (UK, Socialist) and Ms. Kinnock (UK,
Socialist) Mr Wijkman, called for the financing of the Global
Health Fund (GHF) for communicable diseases with a small
proportion of the surplus of the previous financial year.
Regarding the need
to make EU development cooperation more transparent, efficient
and effective, Mr. Wijkman proposed that the budget should
implement the internationally agreed standards of the DAC
(Development Assistance Committee of the OECD) stressing however
that the DAC terminology should be envisaged as a starting point
and every possible effort should be made to furthen the process
so as to allow multipurpose projects in the budget to be
reflected. Moreover, he reiterated the view that the European
Development Fund should be included in the budget.
5. IN BRIEF
According to this
year’s European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) 2001
annual report, out of the ECHO budget of € 500 million for
EU emergency aid, € 450 million has already been allocated.
The geographical breakdown of funds allocated by 31 August 2001
is as follows: ACP countries – € 171.3 million (35%);
West Balkans - € 80.1 million (18%); Asia – € 63.9
million (14%); Middle East and North Africa - € 50.4 million
(11%); the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union -
€ 35.4 million (8%); and Latin America – € 31.1
million (7%).
Members of the
ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, together with European
Parliament’s Development Committee, will hold a joint
meeting to discuss trade arrangements between the EU and West
Africa on 19 September 2001 (11 am- 12:30 pm) at the European
Parliament. Issues on the agenda include reports on the West
Africa Monetary Union (WAEMU), the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union.