[allAfrica.com]  [Africa_2003]


Is Europe Doing Its Part in Africa?

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)
NEWS
July 14, 2003
Posted to the web July 14, 2003

By EU Presidency
Lilongwe
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.
The AU has now taken over this key role.
We know the cost to Africa and global security of 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 AU and NEPAD (the 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 Côte 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 a proportion 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 run-down 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 end African governments' chronic reliance 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 , the 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.
These 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.
The EU's agricultural imports from developing countries amount to some â,B,
(B36 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 to EU
markets for all products.
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. Forthcoming multilateral meetings on trade will provide a chance to look
more closely at this issue.
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 just 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 increase 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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