Strasbourg, 10/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - By approving the Report by French Socialist Jean-Claude Fruteau on the draft decision concerning involving overseas territories and countries in the European community, on Thursday, the European Parliament "forcefully" reiterated "its request for the creation, by 2007, of specific development funds for the OTCs, distinct from the EDF, which would answer the wishes expressed many times by the local authorities of these countries and by our own institution". According to the rapporteur, "such a reform would symbolise the actual taking account of the specific nature of OTCs and better correspond to "the goals of association". During the debate, however, Commissioner Poul Nielson considered that, whereas one could indeed examine the possibility of recourse to other means than the European Development Fund, the budgetary rules in force currently make of the EDF the "only possible instrument".
Parliament also asked for aid intended for each OTC to be allocated not only in relation to their per capita GNP, but using other "objective" criteria, like the size of the population and constraints due to the geographic situation, as, it remarked, "as the provisions stand, three OTC's out of twenty would be deprived of subsidies. According to Parliament, therefore, a transitional phase should be introduced for these three OTCs and "for those whose allocation has been considerably reduced".
Commercially-speaking, Parliament notes "the guarantee of free and unlimited access to the Community market for products originating in OTCs is a founding principle of the association scheme", and thus deplores the fact that tariff quotas should be imposed on a certain number of products. On this point, Mr. Nielson exclaimed: "We should not fool ourselves", OTCs will continue to enjoy the most favourable arrangements, but we must "draw the line" between such openness and "tolerating purely speculative operations" that in no way contribute to the development of the countries concerned. In some cases, "real abuses have been identified and stopped", and it is "normal" that, at a time when we are to review the provisions governing our relations with the OTCs, we should try "to avoid such misuses", Nielson remarked.
Parliament, moreover, considers that the ACP/EU Parliamentary Assembly should, at its half-yearly sessions, be able to systematically invite parliamentarians of the OTCs as observers, "which would be legitimate given the subjects dealt with" by the Assembly.
In his extremely frank intervention, Poul Nielson also regretted the attitude of "certain Member States" on this issue, warning them: "this is Community stuff, we have to get out of the self service syndrome". At the same time, Mr. Nielson warned OTCs which, according to the OECD, are among the "tax havens", reminding them that, if their situation does not change, their financial envelopes would be cut back.