Brussels, 17/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption of several resolutions, last week in Brussels, the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly took position on:
1) Role and place of women in development: Assembly calls for the role of women in the economy to be recognised and for questions of gender equality to be taken into account in all development cooperation policies implemented in the context of ACP-EU partnership.
2) Social development: Assembly calls for partners to the Cotonou Agreement to double credits allocated to health and basic education. Special attention should be paid to the disadvantaged position of women and girls.
3) Trade in human beings: The Assembly launches a pressing appeal to all governments to combat the trafficking in human beings and in children in particular. It also calls on the EU Council and on the European Commission to present proposals in order to promote the integration of all legal residents in the European Union on the basis of best Member State practices.
4) Non-industrialised fishing sector: The Assembly considers that the new ACP-EU relations should fully take into account the needs and the rights of small coastal fishing communities in ACP countries, mainly concerning access to resources and to markets. It calls for European Union development aid to be used to promote the ability of ACP countries to patrol their territorial waters in order to allow fishing fleet activities to be monitored and thus to avoid over-fishing. It invites the European Union to use its development aid programmes to improve the ACP States' processing capacity so that fish caught are fit for local consumption and fit for entry to the EU market.
5) Development aid and migratory flows: The Assembly states it is convinced that the European Union and the other rich countries of the planet should be more involved in the promotion of the social and economic development of the poor countries, as a structural means for managing migratory flows. As a result, it requests that all the rich countries should comply with their solemn commitment to attribute at least 0.7% of their GDP to North-South cooperation policies.
6) Decentralised cooperation: The Assembly restates the importance that it gives to decentralised cooperation as a specific approach for ACP-EU cooperation based on the strengthened potential of ACP actors to take part in the elaboration and the implementation of cooperation policies and programmes at global, regional, national and local levels. It places emphasis on consultation between representatives of the ACP countries, the European Commission, the EP and non-state actors on the arrangements for financial aid from the EDF and other EU financial instruments to southern NGOs. It calls for an increase in funds earmarked for decentralised cooperation in the EU budget for 2001.