16/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - Spanish Socialist Enrique Baron, chair of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, headed the delegation of 30 MEPs attending the parliamentary conference in Hong Kong, organised to coincide with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Summit. The parliamentary conference was attended by parliamentarians from 69 countries around the world, and was addressed by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy. In Hong Kong, Enrique Baron said that the WTO Summit did not directly touch on issues affecting the environment, social affairs, employment or culture, but an agreement on the Doha Round would impact on all areas, and failing to take account of this would necessarily have a negative impact on the legitimacy of the process. The parliamentary conference, attended by some 400 delegates, published a statement calling for the Doha Trade Round to be coherent with pledges made under multilateral environment agreements and said the World Trade Organisation had to be turned into a genuinely universal body. The time when trade policy was the exclusive responsibility of governments has passed, explains the statement, calling on Hong Kong negotiators to refer in their final document to the need to increase transparency at the WTO. The statement focusses on the development side of the talks. On services, it explains that a cautious approach should be adopted when it comes to privatising public services, particularly in areas impacting on healthcare, education and other basic needs of the population (see other article on WTO Summit at Hong Kong).