Brussels, 26/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a joint resolution on the recent UN development aid conference (Monterrey, Mexico), the European Parliament called on the Union to fix a binding timetable in which the objective of 0.7% of GDP for development aid is achieved by 2010, within the framework of its contribution to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg at the end of August).
Parliament is of the opinion that the results of the Monterrey Conference constitute "a step in the right direction", in terms of rich countries' promises to increase the flows of public aid to poor countries, but regrets the absence of a binding timeframe in this respect.
Although Parliament welcomes the fact that for the first time, the Union has fixed a binding objective for Member States (increasing the Community contribution to 0.39% of GDP by 2006, an increase of USD 20 billion before 2006 and an additional USD 7 billion every year as from 2007) as an intermediary stage to the 0.7% sought by the United Nations, it points out that the average contribution of the Union to development aid fell from 0.45% in 1990 to 0.33% in 2001. Industrialised countries are therefore still a long way off from reducing world poverty by half by 2015 - the millennium objective for which Parliament has reiterated its commitment.
The resolution also stresses the importance of liberalising trade within a framework that guarantees equity for developing countries by favouring the sustainable use of the environment and its resources. In this context, Parliament is calling for the assessment and elimination of trade barriers, such as subsidies and other measures that distort trade, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, an area of particular interest to developing countries. Parliament also reiterates its wish for a budgetisation of the European Development Fund (EDF) and the importance with which it sees micro-loans, particularly in favour of women and rural economic development in poverty eradication programmes.