Civil society activists from south call for Europe’s social values to drive its external policies

One of the aims of the Convention was to bring Europe closer to its people, and to listen to their views. However, the future of Europe and its role in the world are not only important to Europe’s own citizens, but also to people around the world. Last week civil society representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America had a chance to express their expectations of the EU’s future role in the world, in a debate with representatives drawn from European Governments and the European Parliament.

The role of Europe in the world
Debates of the European Convention are dominated by the EU’s foreign policy because of the disagreement between Member States over the EU’s management of foreign policy, and the current division in approaches on Iraq. Yet for many, this focus diminishes the role that they want to see Europe play. “Yes, we want Europe to be a strong political player internationally” said Jorge Balbis from ALOP (Asociación Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de Promoción) “so that we can move away from the current unipolar world in which we live. Europe can offer alternative visions to today’s dominant order”. For the civil society leaders from the south Europe had a clear responsibility towards the citizens of the world, and must not only purse an external policy based on its own interests. “Fighting terrorism militarily will only fan the flames of the fanatics” said Arjun Karki, President of Rural Reconstruct Nepal. “Poverty and inequality provide the breeding ground for terrorism. Europe should tackle these root causes through building strong and fair partnership with developing countries”.

Europe's social dimension
Europe prides itself on its social dimension, and as being the world’s principal aid donor. These are fundamental elements for Europe’s development policies. “Since globablisation has no social dimension, only social consequences, Europe must use its commitment to social values to promote models of development that foster a fairer world” said Babu Mathew, Professor of Law at India’s National Law School and a member of the South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication. “A strong, separately defined and functional development policy is key for this to happen,” he continued.

However all too often the EU’s development policy has been undermined by other activities of the Union – such as the CAP and fisheries policies. “There must be coherence in what Europe’s leaders say, with what the EU does” said Fiona Black, a Jamaican researcher on her countries milk industry. Mamounata Cissé, Deputy Secretary General of the ICFTU underlined the lack of openness of European markets towards products coming from the south.

An independent development policy
As the Praesidium of the Convention published draft articles 24 to 33 for Europe’s future constitution, civil society from developing countries expressed their hope to see a strong legal basis for European development cooperation in the future constitution. Luis Perez from CIFCA called for a clear “development cooperation policy, independent from trade and external political policy”. They called for the constitution to emphasize the principles of “coherence” and “integration” in article 8 of the draft constitution proposed by the Praesidium. The final outcome of the Convention will be decisive in defining the ability of the Union to assert itself as a promoter of peace and prosperity on the international scene. The eradication of poverty must be at the heart of Europe’s role in the world, and be one of the main objectives of the Union - independent from the Common Foreign and Security Policy. As if summarising the “Europe in the world” discussion, Guido Van Hecken, Chief of Cabinet for the Belgian State Secretary for Development Co-operation called for an “autonomous, coherent and sustainable development policy for the EU”.

For further information:

Simon Stocker, Tel: +32 2 231 1659; E-mail: [email protected]
Florent Sebban, Tel: +32 2 234 6226 e-mail: [email protected]

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