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"Africa: Is Europe doing its part?"
By European Commission President, Romano Prodi
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This week's meeting of African heads of State in the Mozambican capital
Maputo marks a crucial turning-point in the short history of the African
Union (AU). One year since the AU was launched in South Africa, the Maputo
Summit will set up the institutions for African nations to fight poverty,
promote democracy and build peace.
The OAU accompanied the African conquest of independence and the end of
apartheid, but the organisation did not manage to keep peace on the
continent. This key role is now taken up by the AU.
We know the price to Africa and global security that has resulted from the
lack of attention paid by the international community to Africa's problems:
genocide, millions of deaths in various conflicts and chaos in many
countries. We are witness to the despair of Africa's youth, who often have
no option but to emigrate to Europe, even when this is illegal and carries
high risks. We understand the individual and collective misery inherent in
the average African's life expectancy of 47 years.
We must therefore support the African Union and NEPAD (New Partnership for
African Development launched by African heads of State) because these
initiatives signal Africa's determination to take its destiny in its own
hands. The major industrialised regions must now join in efforts to support
the Africans' own agenda.
Fostering peace
We agree that conflict prevention, peace keeping and peace building are
activities best carried out by Africans. African ownership in this area
should be supported and encouraged by the international community, which
should provide financial and political support. The EU has done this in the
recent past in places such as Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. These steps mark a maturing of EU security-policy thinking and I
warmly welcome them. This is also why I have supported French efforts in
Cфte d'Ivoire and British intervention in Sierra Leone. These operations
have served to avoid the worst and preserve the chances of a peaceful,
political solution for these countries and for West Africa as a whole.
But this is not enough!
If the Africans want to further develop their own capacities, the European
Commission is willing to propose to EU Member States and their African
partners that part of the EU development funds could be used to develop the
tools to support African peace-keeping operations.
Improving health
The very first symptoms of poverty are rundown health-care systems that
have proven incapable of halting the very rapid spread of AIDS and other
communicable diseases. To improve health in Africa, the biggest challenge
is therefore to develop and sustain the capacity of poor countries to
deliver basic health services. Donors can best support this through general
support for public finances, debt relief and good policies in the health
sector. This is the basic policy stance of EU development aid.
The EU has so far pledged $2.5 billion, or 54% of total pledges, to the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. For 2004 alone, current EU
pledges to the Fund amount to $425 million. This means the EU pledge is
more than twice as high as the US pledge of $200 million. We acknowledge,
however, and welcome the US announcement of a $15 billion AIDS package,
which demonstrates a growing understanding in the US administration and
Congress.
We should also remember, as last year's Johannesburg Conference stressed,
that the lack of safe water and sanitation is causing more deaths than
armed conflicts. That is why I intend giving fresh impetus soon to the
proposal I put to the members of the European Council to set up a European
Fund for Water in Africa
Ending hunger
Hunger remains a sad reality on the African continent. The solution must be
to eradicate the need for African governments to rely chronically on
charity, media campaigns and donor pity. Europe believes that developing a
strong, export-oriented African agricultural sector will ensure both
long-term development and African dignity.
This approach is reflected in our development cooperation with Africa. In
2001 we disbursed some $385 million in support of African agricultural
development, which is equivalent to 7.7 times US disbursements. Both
amounts are below, far below, needs.
This determination to help African governments end hunger on the African
continent is shared by our US partners. But we clearly differ on the
method. Although we acknowledge the importance of the amounts allocated by
the US, we are concerned about the features and orientations of US food-aid
policies, which mainly concentrate on in-kind donations and surplus
disposal, while we try to give as much as possible in the form of grants
used to purchase locally.
The continuing US assertion that the EU is hindering the development of
biotechnology and bio-crops in Africa is unacceptable and quite simply
false. The EU has not advised African governments to refuse American GMO
food. We have repeatedly stated that recipient countries should be allowed
to make their own decisions on biotechnology and GMO imports. And we
confirmed this with the recent decision of the European Parliament to
accept all GMOs that respect the precautionary principle.
Exploit trade opportunities
We agree that nations prosper when they embrace free trade and the rule of
law, and the EU continues to be the poor countries' major trading partner.
Exports from developing countries to the EU have risen by 15% per year
since 1995, and by 1999 the developing countries had a trade surplus with
the EU. EU agricultural imports from developing countries amount to some
Ђ36 billion, which is more than the combined imports of the US, Canada,
Australia and Japan. This will increase further with the EU's decision in
2001 to grant the least-developed countries quota and tariff-free access
for all products to EU markets.
Farm subsidies are still an important concern of developing countries. Here
I think all rich countries could do much better. The EU is moving in the
right direction. Over the last decade we have reformed the Common
Agricultural Policy and reduced export subsidies from 25% to 5% of export
value. As recently as 26 June, the EU adopted a development-friendly reform
of the CAP. While the EU is definitely moving, albeit too slowly, towards
less market distortion, the US has gone in the opposite direction,
increasing agricultural subsidies in a massive farmer-assistance package
signed by the President in May 2002.
Development aid
While trade and investment are powerful growth factors, development aid
will continue to be a necessary tool to harness African efforts.
EU development aid amounts to 0.34% of GDP and the EU has pledged to go
even further and bring this to 0.39% by 2006. This is not enough and we
recognise it. And an increasing number of EU countries have reached or will
soon reach the UN target of 0.7%. But total US aid contributions still
stood at only 0.12% of GDP at the end of 2002, and may increase to 0.15 %
in 2006 as a result of the most recent US announcements. We do appreciate
this US effort to catch up with its OECD partners, but the gap will widen
unless further US increases are announced and implemented with a greater
sense of urgency.
In terms of aid volume, the EU provides over half the global aid (over $29
billion out of $57 billion in 2002), compared to the US figure of $12
billion. In absolute figures, official aid amounts to $76 per European and
$43 per American citizen.
The challenge for us Europeans is to step up this effort and rally the new
member countries, while continuing to step up the effectiveness,
flexibility and speed of execution of our aid. With our African partners I
intend tackling the reform of our procedures for implementing our aid to
restore the flexibility it has lost over the years.
Europe is doing its part, but even that is not enough
Europe welcomes this broader discussion on our policies' overall impact on
the poor. The Europeans must provide more development aid than anyone else,
but it is legitimate to ask about the rest. The Africans are not asking
Europe or the US for charity. What I hear from my African colleagues is a
clear appeal to the rich countries to put policies in place that will allow
Africa's peoples to take their destiny in their own hands.
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