Activities of Saskia BRICMONT related to 2021/2213(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the conclusion of the Partnership Agreement between the European Union, of the one part, and the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific (OACPS) States, of the other part
Amendments (12)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Calls on the EU to ensure that all its trade instruments targeting OACPS countries such as EPAs, GSP and Aid for Trade are mutually reinforcing and aligned with the Policy Coherence for Development principle;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Regrets that the Post-Cotonou framework pays little attention to persistent dependence of many OACPS countries on commodities and raw materials and to the need to ensure that the prices payed for these products duly reflect the real social and environmental costs of production; calls on the EU and OACPS countries to draw lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and to rethink fundamentally their economies and focus on sustainable and responsible value chains and market systems that preserve the environment and serve society as a whole;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Reiterates that European companies have a responsibility for their value chains and urges the EU to live up to its commitments and urgently present an ambitious legislative proposal on mandatory human rights, social rights and environmental due diligence obligations for all companies operating in the EU internal market and to ensure that such proposal is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights, applies to the whole value chain and includes provisions on access to justice;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Reiterates its call on the Commission to implement measures such as the prohibition of the importation of products related to severe human rights violations such as forced labour or worst forms of child labour; stresses the importance of including the objective of combating forced labour and child labour in TSD chapters of Union trade agreements;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Is deeply concerned about the fragile integration of OACPS countries and the detrimental impacts of the EPA’s for the survival of their agricultural producers, livestock keepers and fishermen; is worried with the high dependence of African states on food imports from the EU, particularly subsidised products that represent harmful competition for small-scale local agriculture and calls on the EU to put an end to these export subsidies, in line with its Policy Coherence for Development commitments; calls on the EU to ensure the Agreement and its implementing and supporting instruments respect the 2018 UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas; call upon the EU to support the creation of accountable funding mechanisms that support peoples’ effort to build food sovereignty, realise the human right to food, protect and restore ecosystems, increase agrobiodiversity, and address the climate emergency; recalls its view that stable investment and (wo)manpower for developing a resilient African food chain for regional circuits under African ownership could best contribute to increasing the health and wellbeing of African people;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Insists that the agreement’s trade and investment provisions must be tailored to benefit all partierespect EU’s Policy Coherence for Development legal obligations, be tailored to benefit all parties and take full account of OACPS countries’ capacities, levels of development and needs; is concerned about a misbalance benefiting the EU over the OACPS countries; calls on the Commission to guarantee that the OACPS countries benefit from trade relations which are conducive to sustainable development; calls on the Commission to improve EU market access for OACPS producers and to enable OACPS countries, including with technical and financial support, to protect their infant industries, support small-scale farming and meet EU and international sustainability standards for exporting their agricultural products; calls on the Commission to promote sustainable investment opportunities to advances to advance towards a carbon- free economy and digital and green infrastructure in the OACPS countries, in line with its pledge in the Glasgow Climate Pact, while ensuring a responsible and sustainable sourcing and management of natural resources and raw materials, as well as sustainable waste management in line with its Green Deal objectives and the UN free prior and informed consent principle;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. RecogniStresses that the Western interpretation of sustainability has been applied in the Post-Cotonou Agreementsustainability provisions and their interpretation must be anchored in internationally agreed goals and commitments to which both parties have agreed; is concerned that the terminology of the agreement focuses on the goals and perspectives of the EU and does not duly take into account the value of local and indigenous knowledge; warns against any biased interpretation of such provisions; calls for an investigation into the differences in interpretation and application of sustainability criteria and the application of these criteria in the Post- Cotonou Agreement; to this end, reiterates its call for the systematic inclusion of independent binding and enforceable mechanisms for the implementation of Trade and Sustainable Development chapters on human rights, labour and environmental standards in all currently negotiated and future EPAs; stresses that the agreements need to be coherent with development policies and with the SDGs, especially with regard to their impact on deforestation, climate change and biodiversity loss and the ILO Decent work agenda; considering that there is a Decent Work Country Programme is less than half of OACPS countries, calls on the EU to foster their development where they do not exist yet in consultation with social partners and in liaison with ILO;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. calls on the African and European authorities to fight illicit financial phenomena, among others capital flight, tax avoidance schemes and national income loss due to tariff reduction and which tantamount to twelve times the annual figure for ODA;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. ICalls concerned the Commission to guarantee that the suspension clauses may not be legally valid; calls on the Commission to guarantee that the suspension clauses will be correctly applied in the event of violations ofwill be correctly applied as a measure of last resort in the event of violations of essential elements, where the parties are unable to reach a mutually acceptable solution, except in case of particularly serious and flagrant violation of one of the essential elements; emphasises that suspension of clauses should not harm the population, but should target those responsible for violations;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Strongly stresses the important link between trade, inequalities, the eradication of poverty and support for sustainable development; underlines the role of women in the economies and societies of the OACPS countries; calls on the Commission to increase the participation of women in EU- OACPS trade and investment relations. and the need to ensure that trade and investment policies do not undermine these goals, in line with the Policy Coherence for Development obligation; underlines the role of women in the economies and societies of the OACPS countries and emphasizes that the empowerment of women and girls must be mainstreamed throughout the implementation of Post Cotonou framework; calls on the Commission to increase the participation of women in EU- OACPS trade and investment relations; calls on the Commission to update its 2009 communication on “The role of Fair Trade and non-governmental trade- related sustainability assurance schemes” in view of the implementation of the Annex to the trade policy review on the reform of the WTO and against the backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals notably;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. In view of the shrinking space for civil society, is concerned that the parties commit to strengthening the effective participation of civil society only “where appropriate” and calls on the EU to promote the establishment of institutional and operational structures and mechanisms for civil society systematic participation through a transparent, open dialogue and consultation process with EU and OACPS countries civil society actors; calls on the Commission to submit concrete proposals within 6 months after the 2022 EU-Africa Summit.