Activities of Saskia BRICMONT related to 2023/2065(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the implementation of the EU-Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
Amendments (20)
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
D b. whereas special and differentiated treatment is a founding principle of the WTO and the Policy Coherence for Development principle should guide our trade relations with developing countries;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D c (new)
Recital D c (new)
D c. whereas gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa on average six percent of the region’s yearly GDP, jeopardising the continent’s efforts for inclusive human development and economic growth; whereas a 1 percent increase in gender inequality reduces a country’s human development index by 0.75 percent;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas intra-trade account for 23% of SADC States total trade; whereas intra-SADC trade patterns differs from EU-SADC bilateral trade; whereas overall, there is no improvement in diversification and the share of manufacturing in the GDP remains weak;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
F a. whereas developing countries face a gap of USD 2,5 trillion in annual financing to achieve the SDGs by 2030; whereas FDI is an instrument for financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the corresponding SDGs; whereas such capital can support job creation and social and environmental improvements as set out in the SDGs; whereas the aim of attracting investment should go hand in hand with the acknowledgement, in the context of IIAs, that the parties to these agreements should seek to improve their levels of environmental or labour protection, and not weaken or reduce them;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the first review process launched in November 2021 after the EPA had been provisionally applied since 2016 and expects it to be able to demonstrate the link between the EPA and sustainable development; urges the consultant in charge of the ex post evaluation of the SADC EPA to analyse thoroughly the impact of the EPA on SDGs, informal and local economies, regional and pan- African integration, economic diversification, the fight against climate change, including the contribution of domestic industries to this effort, and the effective support of Global Gateway and the EU Aid for Trade programme;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Acknowledges that the preparation of the joint monitoring report on the EPA is advancing at a pace slower than anticipated; acknowledges the capacity constraints faced by SADC EPA States in this regard; recalls that, pursuant to the new TSD approach, civil society organisations should be involved in this stocktaking exercice and encouraged to make proposals to maximize the effectiveness of the EPA and that the EPA should be modernized to establish a Domestic Advisory Group which has become a common practice in other EPAs;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that no agreement has yet been reached on diagonal cumulation; recalls that the introduction of flexible rules of origin (RoO) is essential for achieving regional integration objectives; stresses that rules of origin must promote the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area; recalls that the EPA should demonstrate that it supports the further development of the AfCFTA;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the Commission and the secretariat of the African Union to carry out by the end of 2024 a study examining the discrepancies among the RoO agreed upon across the various EPAs, their potential detrimental impact on the pan- African economic integration, and their cost-benefit for African private sector, especially SMEs, and propose recommendations on how RoO could be harmonised;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up their efforts in technical assistance; calls on the Commission to significantly expand its communication and cooperation with SADC EPA States and to provide them and, when appropriate, their companies and civil society organisations with timely support in implementing upcoming EU projects and fulfilling other international commitments like the Multilateral Environmental Agreements, the ILO Conventions and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. calls on the Commission to inform SADC EPA States about the existing and pending due diligence initiatives taken in the EU and to support economic operators and competent authorities to prepare for compliance and offer them a space of dialogue on implementation issues;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. calls on the Commission to ensure that developing countries can fully exercise their rights under the WTO special and differential treatment provisions, most notably to ensure their food security; calls upon the Commission to update the 2009 communication on fair trade;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Welcomes the efforts of the SADC EPA States and the Commission to establish closer cooperation on resilient food systems and food sovereignty within the review process; considers that the cooperation is an opportunity to push forward the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas and agriculture-oriented ILO Conventions like C129 on labour inspection in agriculture, C010 on minimum age in agriculture, C011 on the right of association in agriculture; recalls the fact that agroecology’s capacity to reconcile the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability has been recognised in landmark reports from the IPCC and IPBES, as well as the World Bank and FAO-led global agricultural assessment (IAASTD);
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Stresses that the EU’s investment policy should help developing countries, notably African countries, to attract FDI and to reduce the funding gap to achieve the SDGs; recalls its demand to the Commission to further analyse the effectiveness of non-regression articles (such as Article 9.3 of the EPA), in particular in developing countries, to ensure that tax policy and development finance are aligned to support a ‘race to the top’; calls on the Commission and the SADC States to agree upon a separate binding and enforceable international instrument, enabling robust domestic frameworks for human rights and environmental due diligence to expand investor obligations and their enforcement;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15 b. Notes that Angola and the European Commission have concluded negotiations on a Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement (SIFA); considers that if Angola joins the SADC and a separate binding and enforceable international instrument between the EU and SADC states is agreed, the EU- Angola SIFA should be adapted accordingly;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Stresses that a transparent and predictable legal and fiscal framework will help promote regional integration and attract foreign direct investment; calls on the Commission and the EU Member States to support the call by the UN Africa Group to negotiate a comprehensive UN Convention Tax to close international loopholes to dodge tax and to collect fiscal income to finance public services and fight inequality and climate change;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Commission and the SADC EPA States to strengthen cooperation through formal forums as well as critical raw materials strategic partnerships and implementation roadmaps, in order to ensure a diversified and sustainable supply of key raw materials for the green and digital transformation, improve recycling of natural resources and promote responsible mining practicewaste management, allow for domestic industries to move up the value chain from the extraction to the processing of raw materials and promote responsible mining practices, notably by recognizing and applying the free prior and informed consent of the local population affected by mining projects; calls for the continuous and broad participation of all relevant stakeholders;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 10 a (new)
Subheading 10 a (new)
Gender
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 10 b (new)
Subheading 10 b (new)
Calls on the Commission to prioritise gender issues in the context of the implementation of the EPA, for example by organising workshops on gender equality between, inter alia, women rights organisations in the EU and in SADC countries, by raising the awareness of domestic authorities and companies as to the untapped economic potential stemming from discrimination against women and by helping them identify the political, economic and social drivers that hamper African women’s advancement and proposes policies and concrete actions to close the gender gap;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Notes that the initial EU policy in connection with the demand by, inter alia, India and South Africa for the removal of patent protectiona TRIPS waiver for COVID vaccines has led to considerable disagreement with South Africa; stresses that this form of cooperation does not meet the requirements of an equal partnership; calls for the EU and its Member States to work towards an agreement to extend the waiagreed flexibilities at WTO leverl to therapeutics and diagnostics and take the opportunity of the Commission proposal for a Regulation on compulsory licencing for crisis management to put in place a clear policy framework to ensure that the future EU compulsory licencing system offers is in line with the agreed TRIPS flexibilities;