Brussels, 06/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the European Parliament on Thursday, the President of Peru, Alejandro Toledo appealed for support to be given to globalisation with a human face. He also highlighted the need to respect diversity and, to the applause of MEPs, sharply criticised the risk of cultural domination by "Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds or CNN".
Alluding to the millions of men and women who " will go to bed tonight not knowing if they're going to eat tomorrow", Mr Toledo also stressed that 44% of Peruvians live under the poverty threshold and 21% lived in absolute poverty. He appealed for globalisation to be a factor that promotes inclusion. "Democracy can be weakened by the absence of concrete responses to the expectations of the poor", he warned before asking, "What use is zero inflation and what good is it for us to respect IMF demands if we don't produce the results expected by the poor and if the if the poor begin to lose faith in democracy…I have come to ask our European friends: I beg you to not sell us weapons, plans, boats, tanks…Allow us to revise our priorities…and focus funding on health and education of the most poor…Don't send us any presents from your farms, thanks very much because if you offer us milk, wheat, it results in unfair competition to our Peruvian farmers…The time has come to build a motorway of trade in both directions, this is what I'm asking of you to do…You ask us to open up our markets. You ask us not to subsidise our farmers. I agree but you do the same thing… I support equality". This is how Mr Toledo concluded, emphasising that the Andean countries and Latin America were trying to construct their own integration, inspired by the European experience and in the hope that Latin America would in the future be able to be a genuine partner to the European Union.
Meeting with Romano Prodi and Javier Solana
On his tour o Europe, the Peruvian President met the CFSP High Representative, Javier Solana, and the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. He submitted his financial solidarity mechanism, which will serve as a way of creating room for manoeuvre for democratic governments to be able to respond to the social needs of their people, while respecting budgetary discipline. In a press statement, Javier Solana, welcomed the efforts made by Alejandro Toledo to ensuring sound democracy in Peru with investments in the social sector, notably in education and health. Javier Solana also supported the commitment made by President Toledo for the integration of the Andean countries.
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