Text tabled : A6-0080/2008

  Luís Queiró (PPE-DE), in writing. − (PT) The report in question correctly defines the current state of Chinese policy in Africa, describing in detail the investments, financing and political consequences. Unfortunately it is unrealistic in its proposals, repeatedly suggesting that the EU should be urged to encourage China to adopt ideal behaviour in the area of human rights, workers’ rights and respect for the environment and, finally, to do in its external policy what it does not do in its internal policy. In the chapter on what should be done with regard to the (correct) portrayal of Chinese policy in Africa and its consequences, there is no guidance on what the EU’s strategy should be, in partnership with countries such as India, Brazil and (an unacceptable omission) the United States.

The current global situation is nothing like the models that have framed geostrategic thinking in recent decades. The emergence of new economies which differ greatly from each other, the generalised and globalised increase in consumption, the competition for essential goods and raw materials, the threat of social revolt, the risk of preference for muscular political regimes, all these new realities require analysis and, in particular, a more strategic proposal with a different view of the future. That is why I abstained from voting on this report.