MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
29.6.2005
pursuant to Rule 108(5) of the Rules of Procedure
by Fiona Hall, Thierry Cornillet and Danté Budreikaité
on behalf of the ALDE Group
on the Global Call to Action Against Poverty: Making Poverty History
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B6-0398/2005
B6‑0406/05
European Parliament resolution on Global Call to Action Against Poverty: Making Poverty History
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the campaign for a Global Call to Action against Poverty, launched in January 2005,
- having regard to the New York Declaration on Action against Hunger and Poverty of 20 September 2004, signed by 111 national governments, including all the EU Member States,
- having regard to the UN Millennium Declaration of 8 September 2000,
- having regard to its previous resolutions on action against hunger and poverty,
- having regard to the two communications from the Commission - the Millennium Development Goals Package - proposing concrete measures to speed up reforms that will improve the quality of aid and ensure that Africa is a priority for development cooperation,
– having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the annual G8 Summit in July will have Africa as one of its priority items on the agenda,
B. whereas aid, debt relief and trade are recognised to be interrelated,
C. whereas, in order to achieve the MDGs, it is estimated that it will be necessary to at least double the annual international aid contribution,
D. whereas the world's eight richest countries have reached a landmark debt relief deal to alleviate global poverty,
1. Welcomes the new commitments made in June by the European Development Council with regard to the target of earmarking 0.7% GDP for development aid;
2. Expresses its grave concern at the fact that sub-Saharan Africa has still not achieved and is still not on track to achieve even one of the eight MDGs by the target date of 2015;
3. Calls for a greater opening up of markets to agricultural exports from developing countries and for the introduction of a 'development package' in the WTO agreement on agriculture;
4. Calls for better use of existing aid, in particular by reordering priorities to focus on the MDGs and by improving monitoring of public money given by the EU in order to tackle corruption and increase transparency;
5. Notes, in this context, the recent initiatives by the Commission with regard to the MDGs and, in particular, the raising of additional money dedicated to development aid;
6. Stresses the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the eradication of poverty and calls for adequate financial support for independent economic sectors;
7. Considers that a free, equitable and development-friendly multilateral trading system is an effective mechanism for eradicating the root causes of poverty and hunger; calls on the EU to promote such a system as a means of alleviating poverty while also ensuring greater market access for the poorest countries;
8. Calls for the provision of appropriate trade-related technical assistance, including capacity building, in order to maximise the development opportunities stemming from trade, and on the EU to support special and differential treatment for the poorest countries so that they can take longer to open their markets to EU exports;
9. Stresses the importance of speeding up and increasing support for programmes to fight diseases such as AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa effectively; considers that such programmes should include adequate attention being paid to research into treatment and prevention, with special attention to vaccines;
10. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the accession countries, the ACP-EU Council and Joint Parliamentary Assembly, the United Nations, the African Union, the IMF, the World Bank, the G8 Heads of State and the Governments of the Paris Club.