Press Releases
Thursday 27th November 2008
Press Release
Economic Partnership Agreements
Economic Partnership Agreements: timing and assent On 26 November the Assembly debated the EU's economic partnership agreements with third countries and specifically those with the Pacific region. The key issues were the rate at which "interim" versions of these agreements are being signed, and whether the European Parliament should give its assent to their taking effect. Of the Pacific region's 15 counties (including East Timor), only two have signed provisional agreements, prompted by the erosion of trade preferences: PNG and Outlining what he would like to see in the final agreement for Papua New Guinea and Fiji, European Parliament rapporteur for the EPA with the Pacific Glyn Ford (PES, UK) listed: progress on allowing export taxes for development purposes, adequate protection for infant industries, intellectual property protection not just for western technical artefacts but also for traditional knowledge, opening up public procurement to an extent consistent with Pacific states' needs, and for services, recognising the need for work visas for the EU. If the Commission cannot accept this basis for further negotiation, said Mr Ford, then he would recommend voting "no" to the interim agreement. "It is in the interest of ACP countries to conclude these agreements as speedily as possible, so as to put themselves on an equal footing with the trading world" said Jürgen Schröder ( CARIFORUM "The European Parliament must give its formal agreement (assent) to the CARIFORUM EPA for it to have legal effect" pointed out Cariforum EPA rapporteur David Martin (PES, UK), adding that "we shalll only give our assent if we belive the EPA serves develpoment goals". "We will therefore require, before we vote next March, assurances that: - the forseen review clause is genuine and properly financed. If we find that EPAs are failing to tackle poverty, it must allow for the comprehensive renegotiation of the agreement, - most favored Nation principle will be eliminated, - adequate "aid for trade" is provided, and - additional funds are made available under the 10th EDF to assist with adjustment policies. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/acp/60_16/default_en.htm Link to website of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
Tuesday, 25th November 2008
PRESS RELEASE
Redefining, scaling up and tailoring development aid
Aid Effectiveness
Official Development Assistance (ODA) needs to be more tightly defined, so that it cannot be made to include non-aid items such as military spending, said the Economic Development, Finance and Trade Committee on 24 November. Spending on debt relief should also be separated from other ODA accounting, and aid generally needs to be scaled up and better aligned with national systems, it says.
OECD figures show that overall EU aid decreased significantly in 2007 and aid figures are often inflated by including debt relief and accounting funds that do not reach the populations of partner countries.
One-third of the EU's €47.5 billion ODA total for 2006 was actually non-aid, including, for example, the amount spent on housing refugees, educating students in
Scale up aid, tailor to national needs
The report urges the EU to ensure more development policy consistency among European policies (e.g. on agriculture, fisheries, trade, energy, environment, climate change, security and migration), so as to avoid undermining the impact of poverty eradication measures and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
MEPs want EU Member States to achieve aid targets of 0.56% of GDP in 2010 and 0.7% in 2015, targets which Member States themselves confirmed in June 2008. In 2007, for the first time since 2000, public development aid fell from 0.42% of GDP to 0.39%.
In addition to multi-annual development aid tables, members hope that the 2008 donor atlas will hope to inform more ambitious donor coordination, so as to solve the problem of the so-called "darling" and "orphan" countries and remedy neglect of crucial sectors such as health, education, social cohesion, gender equality and agriculture.
Budgetary aid and ownership
The major defect of the definition of aid ownership is that it does not recognise the importance of democratic ownership, says the report, which calls on donors and partner governments to recognise the role parliamentarians have to play in ensuring the effectiveness of aid, by providing checks and balances, notably by scrutinising budgets.
Aligning aid with national priorities
The committee urges donor countries to speed up the alignment of their aid to country systems to the maximum extent possible, to strengthen government systems and increase the amount of their aid channelled as general and sector-specific budget support. It notes that budget support is not always adequate in cases of crisis or widespread corruption.
Plenary debate
Presenting the report, Mr Waven William stressed that it was intended as an input for the
Mrs Van Lancker welcomed the Accra Agenda on aid effectiveness as "a step forward in political commitment", but stressed that the need now was for "a concrete delivery timetable", adding that improving aid quality should not become an excuse for reducing its volume. She reiterated that aid is effective "only if there is real democratic ownership" of its planning and implementation, and "never effective when undermined by other policies".
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/acp/60_16/default_en.htm
Link to website of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
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Tuesday 25th November 2008