Brussels, 01/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs is odf the view that the time has now come for enhanced partnership between the EU and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Africa, Asia and America, particularly in the areas of sustainable energy and climate change.
This sums up the general direction of his speech on Monday 1 September at the Opening Plenary Session of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (Samoa, 1-4 September). This conference is organised every ten years and this year's main them is “Real Sustainable Partnerships”. It brings together representatives from more than one hundred countries and is being attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as well as senior officials from the organisation, business leaders, NGOs and academics.
Commissioner Piebalgs confirmed the EU's renewed commitment to take into account the needs and specific economic, social and environmental weak points of small countries confronting major challenges and to support them in their attempts to overcome these challenges and make their way towards developing in a sustainable way. He pointed out that EU aid now focused on the poorest countries, in keeping with the development agenda and that the degree of vulnerability would continue to play a major role in the allocation of resources.
Due to their limited size and the absence of a domestic market and opportunities for economies of scale, SIDS suffer from geographic isolation and limited institutional capacity. They all suffer from the effects of climate change, rising sea levels and are highly dependent on fossil fuel imports. They are also frequently affected by natural and man-made disasters.
The commissioner stated that the EU and the SIDS are united in their determination to meet the common challenges that are climate change, access to sustainable energy, protection of the oceans and marine resources, reducing the risks of natural disasters, protecting biodiversity, food and nutritional safety, as well as the post-2015 programme. He said that the small islands could count on the EU's support to confront these challenges facing them, because the EU had been and would remain one of their main donors and an essential trade partner
According to the commissioner, the EU and member states “see this as an opportunity for us to strengthen existing partnerships and help establish new ones” and that these partnerships, “should be driven by the SIDS themselves …based on trust, mutual respect, transparency and mutual accountability, while pursuing measurable objectives and tangible results”.
In Samoa, Piebalgs will take part in the dialogue among stakeholders on climate change and disaster risk management. He will also participate in the private sector partnership forum where he will highlight the role of the private sector in EU-SIDS cooperation, particularly in the areas of energy, sustainable tourism and support for SMES. He will visit an EU water treatment plant that provides drinking water to more than 1,300 families from the Aleisa community and will attend the inauguration ceremony of a solar farm project, the main source of renewable energy production in the Pacific, funded by New Zealand. Bilateral meetings are planned with the prime minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, as well as with other leaders and the vice president of the Asian Development Bank, Stephen Groff.
Between 2007 and 2012, EU support to SIDS countries receiving development cooperation and humanitarian aid reached almost €3.5 billion. Moreover, 16 SIDS countries participate actively with projects in the 7th Research Framework Programme, benefiting from around €9 million. The EU also provides support to SIDS through the sustainable fisheries agreements, which are agreements with non-EU countries to allow EU vessels to fish in those countries' exclusive economic zones, in a legally regulated environment. In return, the EU pays the partner countries a financial contribution, which amounted to €7 million in 2013. (AN)