Activities of Harlem DÉSIR related to 2009/2165(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Second revision of the ACP-EU Partnership agreement (Cotonou agreement) (debate)
Amendments (11)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
New citation
New citation
- having regard to the Paris Declaration of 2 March 2005 on Aid Effectiveness, whose aim is to promote a model to improve transparency and monitoring of resources for development,
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that, in the light of the considerable changes resulting from the initialling and signing of the EPAs, the review of provisions relating to economic and trade cooperation must be included in the second revisiona reference to those agreements must be included in the second revision of the Cotonou Agreement; recommends furthermore that this reference includes a provision on a clause for the revision of the EPAs, which should be carried out within five years after the signature of the Aagreements;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recommends that the provision contained in Article 95(3) of the Agreement according to which the revision should not apply "to the provisions on economic and trade cooperation, for which a separate review is provided" be legally clarifiedamended in or deleted, as with the introduction of the EPAs the special review procedure no longer has a rationaler not to contradict the revision clause foreseen by the EPAs;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that, in their notification letters, the parties to the Agreement explicitly ask for the revision of numerous trade provisions; points out that new provisions need to be added in new areas, such as Aid for Trade in order to guarantee the development dimension in the trade areas of that Agreement;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. As regards Article 12 of the Cotonou Agreement, calls on the Commission to notify systematically the Secretariat of the ACP States and the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly of any European measures which might affect the interests of the ACP States; in this perspective, calls on the Commission to better use inter-service consultations between its Directorates-General, as well as policy impact assessments that might enhance Policy Coherence for Development;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Considers it necessary, firstly in view of the entry into force of the EPAs for certain ACP countries only and secondly because various provisions of Article 37 of the Cotonou Agreement are out of date, to revise the part of the ACP-EU agreement concerning trade agreements in order to incorporate provisions concerning all the existing ACP-EU trade arrangements (GSP, GSP plus, interim EPAs, EPA with the Cariforum countries) and to uphold a number of principles and commitments which should not be lost from the Agreement, namely: - consistency between, on the one hand, all the trade frameworks governing relations between the ACP and EU countries and, on the other hand, the development objectives which are at the heart of ACP-EU cooperation, - the guarantee that all the ACP countries will have the benefit of a trade framework which is at least equivalent to their previous situation, particularly for countries which are not LDCs and are not signatories to an EPA, - the guarantee that, for all the ACP countries, the new trade framework will take account of sensitive sectors, particularly agricultural food production, when determining transition periods and the final product coverage, and that it will make it possible to improve the market access which ACP countries enjoy, particularly by means of a review of the origin rules;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the negotiators to address the tax-related aspect of development and to put in place effective and viable tax systems in the ACP countries in order to ensure sustainable source of development financing with the long-term objective of replacing foreign aid dependency; calls on the negotiators in this context to include in Article 9.3 of the ACP-EU agreement, concerning the proper management of public affairs, the principle of good fiscal governance;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Calls on the Commission and the ACP countries to include in Article 13 of the ACP-EU agreement on migration the principle of circular migration and its facilitation by granting circular visas; stresses that the article in question emphasises respect for human rights and equitable treatment of nationals of ACP countries, but that the scope of these principles is seriously compromised by bilateral readmission agreements with transit countries in a context of externalisation by Europe of the management of migration, which do not guarantee respect for the rights of migrants and which may result in 'cascade' readmissions which jeopardise their safety and their lives;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Calls for negotiations to reinforce human rights clauses and sanctions for failure to respect such clauses, especially with regard to the human rights of minorities, women and people living with HIV/AIDS;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls, with the aim of enhancing the parliamentary, representative and democratic character of the JPA, for all ACP countries to be genuinely represented by parliamentarians in the JPA in future and not by representatives of governments, as sometimes happens, and consequently for Article 17 of the ACP-EU agreement to be revised to this effect;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls for the strengthening and upgrading of the ACP-EU JPA and insists for provisions to be made in the Cotonou Agreement to allow the JPA to scrutinise the country and regional strategy papers, the ACP-EC EPAs and the European Development Fund; calls for genuine synergy to be established between, on the one hand, the new parliamentary committees created by the EPAs and, on the other hand, the JPA;