Cerdeira Morterero (PSE). – (ES) Madam President, in the little time available I would like to give my personal impression, as representative of the Socialist Group at the Monterrey Conference – although I believe it is shared by all the parliamentary groups – of that Conference.

This has been a Conference of contrasts. There are positive aspects which it would be unfair not to stress, but we must also recognise, as the Commissioner has done, that on certain aspects our expectations for this Conference have not been fulfilled and, of course, this Parliament’s expectations had been expressed by means of a resolution.

On the one hand, to have a consensus document, drawn up previously in January in New York, has the positive effect of allowing the participants to dedicate their time to meetings and achieve very significant bilateral commitments, to participate in round tables. But, on the other hand, we also revealed what our weaknesses and limitations were and how far we were willing to go. We knew previously that certain issues might be put on the backburner, because for the sake of reaching a consensus, particularly with the United States, the European Union was going to give in. I believe that this has been a failing on the part of the Council: to demonstrate this weakness. Of course, it was not the European Union that was represented there; it was the European Commission, the delegation of the European Community, since the European Union does not yet have its own personality.

The positive aspects include the commitment to a budgetary increase in development funds by Europe, as well as better coordination between the Member States, and the fact that the United States has also committed itself to increasing its contribution.

Nevertheless, I believe we will have to continue working towards the next Johannesburg commitment, where we will have to define the issues relating to new sources of funding – which have not been discussed – to global resources – nothing has been agreed in this respect either – and also stress the need to listen more to developing countries and seek a solution to their foreign debt.

We must commit ourselves to continuing to work towards Johannesburg, in order to fulfil the objectives of the Millennium Summit.