1.
COMMISSION BRIEFS CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS AND BUSINESS
REPRESENTAIVES ON THE OUTCOME OF THE WTO MINISTERIAL IN DOHA
The European
Commission, this week, held a briefing meeting on the outcome of
the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, as a part of its of
dialogue sessions with civil society and business representatives
on trade issues. Presenting the Commission’s view of the
results of Doha, the Director General of the Commission
Directorate for Trade, Mr Peter Carl, said that apart from the
Final Declaration, the two other main results were the granting
of the waiver for preferential trade between the ACP and the EU,
and the accession of China and Taiwan to the WTO.
Mr Carl said that
development objectives are mainstreamed throughout the Final
Declaration. Amongst the development objectives, the Director
General, described market access as the issue of biggest interest
to developing countries representatives at Doha, followed
distantly by technical assistance and the reform of the WTO. On
reform of the WTO, Mr Carl claimed that many developing countries
are of the view that an increased openness of the WTO to civil
society is not in their interest.
The Commission
Director General argued that the focus on development issues in
Doha was an indication of the Community’s influence, as the
Community had pushed for these issues. He however admitted that
there had been a number of failures regarding development in
Doha, one of them being the failure to improve the draft text on
social development.
Mr Carl noted that
the negotiations are going to be taxing on the human resources of
all countries involved, especially developing countries. He said
the Commission would try to assist developing countries with
technical assistance. According to him an idea for EU support
for ACP countries, which do not have representations at the WTO
office in Geneva, could be for the EU to provide assistance in
setting up ACP regional offices in Geneva for regional
representation rather than national representation. He argued
that such regional offices would match the regional groupings of
ACP states that are expected to begin negotiating free trade
arrangements with the EU.
Eurostep and
many other NGOs are of the view that conducting negotiations with
the EU simultaneously with negotiations at the WTO on a
comprehensive round, as the EU has pushed for, will further tax
the ACP’s human resources.
2.
SIX ACP COUNTRY STRATEGY PAPERS AVAILABLE
The European
Commission has made available, on request, six ACP Country
strategy papers (Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Vanuatu
and Cameroon) that have been officially adopted and signed.
Country strategy papers are the strategies on which the aid
programmes under the Cotonou Agreement to individual ACP
countries are based. The Commission has stated that these papers
will appear on its website from December 2001. Eurostep
has called on the Commission to make all draft Country Strategy
Papers available, given that the process of their preparation is
supposed to a transparent one, which involves contributions from
civil society.
The Commission has
however argued that Strategy Papers can only be made available
once they have been adopted and signed. For more information you
can contact [email protected]
3. EU NGDO
DAILOGUE MEETING WITH DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONER NIELSON
EU NGDO
representatives met this week with European Commissioner for
Development, Poul Nielson for the 3rd dialogue meeting
between the Commission and EU NGDOs. The main topic on the
agenda, was the state of progress on the Commission’s
Communication on Civil Society Participation in Developing
Countries. The Commissioner insisted that the Communication would
be produced despite earlier indications that its production is in
doubt. Other topics on the agenda were development education,
gender, co-financing and food security, and sectoral targets in
the European Community budget. The PAF will endeavour to bring
you more information on the meeting next week.
4. NGOs CALL FOR GLOBAL HEALTH FUND TO
PROVIDE THE ACCESS TO MEDICINES
Ahead of the Board
Meeting of the Global Health Fund For AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria scheduled for the 15 of December, a group of humanitarian
NGOs and associations working on HIV/AIDS from both the North and
the South met in Brussels this week. The group called for the
financing, of not only the prevention of the transmissible
diseases, but also most importantly access to medicines. At
the recent 4th WTO Ministerial Meeting
in Doha the primacy of the right to treatment over economic
stakes was recognised. However, civil society representatives
attending the Brussels Conference expressed their astonishment
over the fact that the Health Fund will not be addressing the
problem of provision of medicines against AIDS, bearing in mind
that about 30 million people suffering from HIV do not have
access to medicine.
At a press meeting organised by MEP Didier Claude-Rod (Green,
France), the civil society actors appealed to the European
Commission for the promotion of: 1) commitment for rich countries
in providing access to treatment for infected people; 2) the
establishment of a fast track procedure to deal with emergencies;
3) the representation of NGOs on the Board of the Global Health
Fund.
Jeanne Gapiya, a representative from an AIDS Association in
Burundi, who has been living with AIDS for 15 years, pointed out
that she is living proof that in poor countries it is actually
possible to control AIDS with medication. She stressed that
poor countries, despite their many problems do have the
capability to run efficient programmes of treatment, which not
only require the medical know how but also proper infrastructure.
With the help of NGOs and the support of MSF ( Médecins sans
frontières) Burundi have succeeded in set in place funds of $ 50
000 per year to buy anti-retro viral medicines.
Atiqa Chajri, ALCS (Association de Lutte contre le Sida, Morocco)
recalled that the Global Health Fund “is not a
development fund but an emergency fund”
5. THE EU AND THE UN JOINTLY
CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION IN ORDER TO FUND
HUMANITARIAN AID FOR 2002
This Tuesday, UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, EU Humanitarian Aid
Commissioner Poul Nielson and Eddy Boutmans, President in Office
of the EU Development in Council, launched an appeal aimed at
providing financial contributions for vulnerable populations in
the African Great Lakes region ($ 194 millions for the
DRC-Democratic Republic of Congo, $ 107 millions for Burundi) and
South East Europe. The funds for the African Great Lake
region will mainly be aimed at providing aid to the one million
refugees and the three million disabled persons in the region.
Furthermore the aim of the funds will also be used for the
promotion of respect for human rights, the promotion of the peace
processes in Burundi and the re-launch of the local economy in
DRC.
The initiative is a joint effort between the European Commission,
the United Nations and the Belgian EU Council Presidency, in
order to urge the international community to mobilise the
necessary humanitarian aid for 2002 of $ 2.5 billion to the 33
million people victimised by humanitarian crises all over the
world.
6. BELGIAN
NGO COALITION ORGANISE FORUM ON BELGIAN PRESIDENCY
The North-South
coalition will organise an NGO-forum on December 7-8 2001. The
NGO-forum, which is a coalition of the different sectors
(environment, refugees and migration and development
cooperation), will evaluate the accomplishments of the Belgian
Presidency and the preparations for the Summit of Laeken that
will take place on December 14th and 15th.2001.
The
Forum will include a seminar on 7 December titled “the
European development policy: from the Belgian to the Spanish
Presidency” See http://eu.ngoforum.be/kalender/kal_58.php
A seminar will also be held on collaboration with Central- and
Latin-American NGO-coalitions (ALOP, CIFCA) on the co-operation
and trade relations between the EU and Latin-America. For
more see http://eu.ngoforum.be/kalender/kal_53.php
and http://eu.ngoforum.be