German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller called on Monday 28 September for a new Marshall Plan for Africa and for adequate support for post-Covid-19 recovery plans in developing countries in the EU's future 2021-2027 budget.
His plea was well received by MEPs on the European Parliament's Development Committee, with some nuances: the ECR and ID groups insisted on strict control of the use of the funds to prevent them from going into the pockets of corrupt governments.
Gerd Müller stressed that cooperation with developing countries, especially African countries that are severely affected by the impact of the pandemic, was a German priority for the Council Presidency.
“In Europe, it is not well understood that the pandemic has led to economic crises, hunger crises in many countries around the world. The UN predicts that there will be more victims of the consequences of the pandemic in the Third World than of the virus itself”, he said.
The Marshall Plan for Africa, endowed with €50 billion a year, would require the creation of a European Development Bank guided by the EIB, with the participation of national development banks.
Mr Müller considers “incomprehensible”, even “absurd”, the reduction in the development budget in the MFF project, and the €7 billion per year for Africa - “a budget lower than that of the CAP for a continent sixty times the size of Germany” - to be totally insufficient.
According to him, “none of the 17 SDGs will be achieved if we do not thoroughly review our policies for investing public funds”, also involving private investment, to combat biodiversity loss and implement the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
He regrets that the €350 billion of expenditure planned for the climate in the framework of the Green Deal is solely for internal use, whereas “we must accompany the transition beyond our borders, by involving Africa”.
A duty of care within a European legal framework that guarantees “fair and equitable supply chains” is another German priority to combat child labour and the exploitation of people in developing countries, particularly in the ACP countries.
During the debate, the Minister, like Tomas Tobé (EPP, Sweden), spoke in favour of “maintaining the Joint Parliamentary Assembly” in the post-Cotonou Agreement currently being negotiated.
Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France) asked whether the German Presidency was prepared to act to end the inconsistency between the Green Deal and the export to developing countries of pesticides banned in the EU. Gerd Müller considered that “if pesticides are banned in Europe, they must be banned in Africa”.
According to him, “it would make sense to put in place a European solution. We need the Commission's support. I am personally in favour of Parliament's right of initiative.”(Original version in French by Aminata Niang)