Activities of Lola SÁNCHEZ CALDENTEY related to 2017/2594(RSP)
Plenary speeches (1)
Resilience as a strategic priority of the EU external action (debate) ES
Amendments (16)
Amendment 4 #
Recital A
A. whereas, according to the OECD, 1.6 billion people live in 56 countries identified as fragile4 ; whereas situations of fragility have human-related, and not natural, causes; whereas situations of fragility increase the vulnerability of populations due to various factors including conflict and insecurity, forced displacement, extreme poverty, inequality, food insecurity, economic shocks, poor governance and weak institutions, impunity, and natural disasters exacerbated by the impact of climate change; whereas fostering resilience is particularly important in situations of fragility which the OECD defines along five different dimensions – economic, environmental, political, security and societal; _________________ 4 OECD (2016), States of Fragility 2016: Understanding violence, OECD publishing, Paris
Amendment 8 #
Recital E
E. whereas a multifaceted approach to resilience is needed in the EU’'s external action and this can be fostered by increasing coherencethe principle of policy coherence for development in all external actions and harmonization between different EU policies, particularly development aid and humanitarian assistance together with environmental- related policies, and with a clear focus on disaster risk reduction; whereas the EU’'s foreign and security policy also has a central role to place in promoting resilience notably by promoting sustainable development, human rights and political dialogue, while fostering early warning systems and working for the prevention of social socks such as starvation, rise of inequalities, human rights violations, violent conflict and for conflict resolution when this occurs;
Amendment 13 #
Recital F
F. whereas the EU should promote an integrated approach to its external action whilst at the same time enhancing its contribution to sustainable development and recognising each policy’'s mandate and objectives, as recognised in the Treaties; whereas this is particularly important in conflictrisis situations and with regard to the EU’'s humanitarian action, which cannot be considered a crisis management tool and needs to be fully guided by humanitarian aid principles; whereas the EU should continue to promote respect for human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to a conflict;
Amendment 17 #
Recital G
G. whereas while a lack of resilience can result in immediate needs – including a humanitarian response to save lives or political and diplomatic efforts to face crisis and end conflicts – fostering resilience needs to be understood as a long- term effort embedded in the promotion of sustainable development; whereas as part of the EU’'s foreign policy and development cooperation programmes promoting resilience needs to be context-specific and seek to contribute to the strengthening national resilience strategies owned by partner countries’' governments that are also accountable to their populations;
Amendment 21 #
Recital I
I. whereas a focus on communitiespeople should remain central to the EU’'s approach to resilience, including by, wherever possible, working with and building capacities at national, regional and local levels and by recognising and supporting the central role of civil society organisations and local communities;
Amendment 24 #
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas women and girls suffer the most of crisis and conflicts; whereas women and girls are disproportionately exposed to risk, increased loss of livelihoods, security, and even lives, during and in the aftermath of disasters; whereas women and girls face heightened risks due to displacement and the breakdown of normal protection structures and support; whereas in crisis- related context the likelihood of rape, sexual exploitation and risky behaviour greatly increases the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and complications regarding reproductive health;
Amendment 28 #
Recital J
J. whereas the approach to resilience in the external action of the EU should pay special attention to the most vulnerable parts of the population, including the poorest, minorities, forcibly displaced populations, women, children, migrants, people living with HIV, LGBTI persons and people with disabilities and the elderly;
Amendment 29 #
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the recognition of the importance of promoting resilience in the EUGS by making it a strategic priority of the external action of the EU; welcomes the positive contribution which increased political, and diplomatic, and security attention to promoting resilience can have in partner countries but underlines that resilience cannot be reduced to these dimensions;
Amendment 33 #
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the multidimensional – economic, environmental, political, securtability and societal – character of resilience and welcomes that this concept is becoming an important one in the EU’'s foreign and security policy, development cooperation and humanitarian assistance; highlights that the distinct mandate and objectives of each policy need to be respected, whilst also promoting greater coherence between policies towards sustainable development; recalls the importance of ensuring the Principle of Policy Coherence for Development in all EU external action by ensuring EU policies do not undermined development countries effort to achieve Sustainable Development Goals;
Amendment 38 #
Paragraph 5
5. Highlights that building resilience in partner countries is a long-term process and that this therefore needs to be integrated into development programmes and all external policies; stresses that the new Joint Communication should recognise this and support the promotion of resilience as essential element of the sustainable development strategies of partner countries, particularly in fragile states; notes that these strategies need to be context-specific and in line with the internationally agreed principles of effective development effectiveness including country ownership, alignment with national development strategies and shared accountability to European citizens and those from partner countries; underlines in this regard the important monitoring and scrutiny role of the European Parliament and of national parliaments;
Amendment 50 #
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for community resilience and a focus on vulnerable groups – including the poorest in society, minorities, women, children, migrants, people living with HIV, LGBTI persons, people with disabilities and the elderly – to remain central to the promotion of resilience in the external action of the EU; highlights the central role played by civil society organisations and local communities in building resilience; underlines also the importance of collecting and disseminating disaggregated data to understand the situation of vulnerable groups;
Amendment 55 #
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Calls for further efforts to increase women and girl´s access to health and sexual health education, family planning, prenatal care and sexual and reproductive health and rights, including safe and free abortion services, notably to address the largely unachieved MDG 5 on maternal health, including reduce infant and child mortality and avoidance of high-risk births;
Amendment 60 #
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Stresses the need to expand the Refugee Convention and the Kampala Convention to protect and assist displace people around the world as well as the population affected by other forms of violence, such as human trafficking, gender violence and economic violence since they may have a well-founded fear of persecution or be at risk of serious harm;
Amendment 63 #
Paragraph 9
9. Recognises state resilience as an important dimension of resilience and underlines that the resilience and stability of countries is directly derived from the respect for human rights, the strength of democracy, trust in institutions, and accountability to their own citizens, objectives, each and all of them, which must be promoted and defended in the implementation of the EUGS; stresses the importance of boosting essential public services, such as education, health, water and sanitation, in order to enhance resilience;
Amendment 65 #
Paragraph 10
10. Underlines that the concept of resilience in the external action of the EU should maintain a global geographic scope; notes that fostering resilience should be an objective of the promotion of human rights and sustainable development in partner countries and not be limited to geographic areas facing security crises with an immediate impact on the EU; promoting resilience should in any case prioritise and pay particular attention to fragile states;
Amendment 71 #
Paragraph 12
12. Calls for sufficient resources to be devoted to the promotion of resilience, in line with its place as one of the strategic priorities of the EU; would welcome a strategic reflection ahead of the next multi- annual financial framework of how the EU can better use existing external financing instruments and innovative mechanisms like Trust Fund, always aligned with internationally agreed development effectiveness principles, to promote resilience; stresses that actions can be financed from different instruments working in a complementary manner and underlines that resources drawn from development cooperation instruments need to maintain poverty reduction as their central objective;