Strasbourg, 09/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a long resolution setting out its requirements for the third United Nations conference on developing countries, to be held in Brussels on 14-20 May in the European Parliament buildings.
During the debate, Council President Lars Danielsson said he shared the European Parliament's concerns, particularly concerning preventing conflicts in developing countries (a priority of the Swedish Presidency, he pointed out) and mentioned the measures taken by the EU on behalf of developing countries, such as the "Everything except weapons" initiative. He was pleased that the EU Council had kept to the spirit of the European Commission proposal. European Commissioner Pascal Lamy, from whom the proposal initiated, repeated his desire that other developed nations follow the EU's example, noting in this connection that Chile and New Zealand had shown themselves to be quite favourable and that Japan, despite problems with the rice industry, had taken some customs duty measures. The United States would be revising their system of preferences this year (he pledged that the EU would ensure that the US bore took the EU initiative into account). Most importantly, he was concerned that the EU should not be seen as wanting to "buy off" the support of developing countries for a new WTO round which was not in their interest. He added that they had already taken their decisions, in any case, against the "law of the jungle". Mr Lamy stressed however, that the "Everything except weapons" initiative was not enough in itself and had to be supplemented by other measures to enable developing countries to increase their export capacity and become part of the multilateral commercial exchange system. Mr Lamy stressed that the Brussels conference was likely to come up with a "new action programme for the next ten years", a "solid" programme which should be "as concrete as possible". He gave the Parliament assurances concerning another of their requests - that LDC have easy access to medicines, at affordable prices. This issue will be discussed by the General Affairs Council on 14 May, thus in time for the conclusions of the Union Council to be outlined to the UN Conference, said Mr Lamy. We can begin the conference with a free conscience, he felt when concluding.
In its resolution, the Parliament calls in particular that the conference adopts a programme enabling for a significant improvement in the living conditions in the LDC during this decade, and, in 2015, a 50% reduction in extreme poverty. Furthermore, it asserts that the WTO and the IMF have the obligation to contribute towards the realisation of such a programme, and urgently call for the reform and the democratisation of the WTO, in order for these countries to take part "effectively". According to the Parliament, it will also be necessary to defend, in the framework of the WTO, the right of these countries to protect their national food production, and allow the LDC, which are part of the WTO, to authorise, on a case by case basis, support measures on an internal level or through export subsidises. The Parliament, which once more rules for the complete cancellation of the LDC debt, heavily indebted to the industrialised countries, also underlines that the EU would be unable to maintain its direct cooperation with LDC in the midst of armed conflicts or spending disproportionate amounts on the acquisition of arms.