47 Amendments of Charles GOERENS related to 2012/2002(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
- having regard to the Council’s conclusions on: ‘Increasing the Impact of EU Development Policy: an Agenda for Change’1, __________________ 1 3166th Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Brussels, 14 May 2012: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/c ms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/13024 3.pdf
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2 a (new)
Citation 2 a (new)
- having regard to the Council’s conclusions on: ‘The Future Approach to EU Budget Support to Third Countries’2, __________________ 2 3166th Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Brussels, 14 May 2012: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/c ms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/13024 1.pdf
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2 b (new)
Citation 2 b (new)
- having regard to the Council’s conclusions on: ‘Policy Coherence for Development’3, __________________ 3 3166th Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Brussels, 14 May 2012: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/c ms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/130225 .pdf
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 11 a (new)
Citation 11 a (new)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 11 c (new)
Citation 11 c (new)
- having regard to the DAC Peer Review of the Development Cooperation Policies and Programmes of the EU, published on 24 April 2012 by the Development Aid Committee (DAC) of the OECD7, __________________ 7 http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/46/5015 5818.pdf
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the European Consensus for Development, signed by the European Commission, the Council and the Parliament is an acquis, and recalling the importance and the scope of this document, which enshrines the European Roadmap for development, as well as the acquis and the guidelines arising from it,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas 2015 is the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals,
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas globalisation, a major source of wealth, particularly in middle-income countries, has not, however, contributed sufficiently to reducing insecurity or indeed poverty,
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas development cooperation consists of promoting human development and the fulfilment of human beings in all their dimensions, including their cultural dimension,
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D c (new)
Recital D c (new)
Dc. whereas reinforcing synergies and establishing a strategic link between humanitarian aid and development aid is a necessary condition for developing resilience and initiating a process of sustainable development in fragile or transition countries whose populations are among the poorest and most vulnerable,
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D d (new)
Recital D d (new)
Dd. whereas, pursuant to Article 2(3) of the Treaty on European Union, one of the aims of the Union is to encourage a sustainable social market economy and this approach applies to both development policy and neighbourhood policy,
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. recalling the willingness of the Commission to cease ODA to middle- income countries within the scope of the differentiation as provided for in the Agenda for Change,
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E d (new)
Recital E d (new)
Ed. whereas since the objective of the Agenda for Change proposed by the Commission is to strengthen the impact of current development policy, achievement of the Europe 2020 strategy and the other interests of the European Union in the area of the Union’s external activity should be planned in accordance with the objectives of its development policy,
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E e (new)
Recital E e (new)
Ee. whereas at international level, particularly within the G20, there is a democratic deficit in decision-making structures based on a form of governance that excludes the poorest developing countries,
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E f (new)
Recital E f (new)
Ef. having regard to the Commission’s analysis of the current deficiencies in development policy (fragmentation of aid and duplication, since the division of labour among donors is far from ideal),
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E g (new)
Recital E g (new)
Eg. whereas the new Agenda includes a limited number of priorities, making it better able to meet new challenges, including the impact of the financial crisis, climate change, energy problems and recurring food crises,
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that the Agenda for Change is innovative in that it focuses, inter alia, on harnessing budgetary resources, combining subsidies and loans and promoting the private sector; considers that the use of these mechanisms should contribute, principally, to lifting the inhabitants of developing countries out of extreme poverty and dependencegratulates the Council on having taken account, in its conclusions of 14 May 2010, of both basic principles underlying EU development cooperation and some of the positions expressed by the European Parliament in its recent resolutions on development cooperation;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Believes that the Agenda for Change is innovative by focusing, among other things, on the use of budget support, on combining grants and loans and on promoting the private sector; believes that using these mechanisms should essentially contribute to lifting the citizens of developing countries out of extreme poverty and dependence;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes the Commission’s intention to promote ‘inclusive and sustainable growth in the service of human development’, but regrets that the document does not contain any explicit references to the need to promote more equitable distribution of the wealth produced and emphasises that, from a development perspective, this new instrument should have no objective besides that of the economic and social advancement of the most deprived;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Reaffirms its commitment, in this regard, to social inclusion, and the decision to allocate at least 20 % of EU aid in its entirety to basic social services as defined by the United Nations in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Warns that exclusive attention to economic growth and excessive confidence in the effects of automatic redistribution of development in the private sector could lead to unbalanced, non-inclusive growth;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Emphasises the responsibility of all state and non-state actors to focus their strategies on eliminating poverty; stresses, on the one hand, the responsibility of the EU to meet its target of 0.7 % by 2015 and, on the other, the essential fight against poverty in emerging economies using means relevant to their internal solidarity; in this regard, welcomes the conclusions of the Council, which encourage the Union to ‘continue its political dialogue on poverty reduction and the fight against inequalities with more advanced countries’;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Believes it essential for middle-income countries to commit an increasing proportion of their revenue to social purposes, particularly through developing taxation systems and other internal redistribution and social protection systems, thereby enabling the European Union to gradually scale back its current development programmes;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. RequestApproves of the concept of differentiation; invites the Commission, thereforehowever, to negotiate a roadmap for the gradual reduction of Official Development Assistance (ODA) with middle-income countries, to limit itself in time to granting only technical assistance to these countries and to involve them progressively in North–South–South triangular cooperations;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 e (new)
Paragraph 10 e (new)
10e. Agrees with the Council’s call for the adoption of a rights-based approach to development, through which the European Union recognises, in particular, the right to universal, non- discriminatory access to basic services, participation in democratic political processes, transparency and accountability, justice and the Rule of Law, with an emphasis on poor and vulnerable groups;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 f (new)
Paragraph 10 f (new)
10f. Regrets, however, that in the Commission communications human rights mainly appear as part of a broader good governance conditionality, which seems to have only instrumental value for development; points out that a human rights-based approach to development cannot be limited to conditionality, and that an integrated understanding of human rights is needed, whereby equal attention is paid to civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights and development is understood in the first place as human development;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 g (new)
Paragraph 10 g (new)
10g. Recalls, in this context, the importance of recognition by the EU of the right to development of these partner countries and the obligations arising from this right for donor countries;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 h (new)
Paragraph 10 h (new)
10h. In line with the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, calls on the Commission to continue supporting a rights based approach to the population and development agenda, notably through collaboration with CSOs and UN agencies like UNFPA;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 k (new)
Paragraph 10 k (new)
10k. Believes that the imposition of conditions for the use of certain kinds of ODA disbursement should go hand in hand with democratic monitoring of budgets by parliaments, the courts of auditors, civil society and regional and local authorities in recipient countries and with guarantees from the European Union on the continuity and predictability of aid provided by the Union, and welcomes the fact that the Council has included these recommendations in its conclusions; stresses the need to continue and expand the ‘MDG contracts’ system;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 l (new)
Paragraph 10 l (new)
10l. Believes that the official ODA publication does not sufficiently reflect the means that are truly available in this regard;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 n (new)
Paragraph 10 n (new)
10n. Emphasises the need to strengthen political dialogue, particularly among the three institutions of the EU, in order to strengthen the existing level of consensus and involvement regarding the adoption of the ‘European Consensus on Development’ in 2005; believes, therefore, that the new programme can only be an instrument that is compatible with the ‘Consensus’, leading to a more effective development policy that serves the overarching cooperation development objective of the European Union, which is to eradicate poverty – in particular, through efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals – in a context of sustainable development;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 o (new)
Paragraph 10 o (new)
10o. Wishes to preserve the consensual character of all EU institutions regarding cooperation development as defined on 20 December 2005 and, in this spirit, calls on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to add her signature to the European Consensus on Development, since the European External Action Service over which she presides assumes significant programming responsibilities;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Regrets that the Commission has only called on the Council to approve its Agenda for Change, despite the fact that democratic control, as provided for in the Treaty of Lisbon, should be fully applied in the field of development policy implementation; stresses that in order to become operational, all changes in the geographic, thematic and sectoral development priorities of the Union must be decided through codecision by the Parliament and the Council within the framework of instruments for the financing of development cooperation which fall within the ordinary legislative procedure;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 e (new)
Paragraph 11 e (new)
11e. Calls on the Commission to develop the tools necessary to guarantee a strategic link between humanitarian aid and development in situations of fragility, crisis and post-crisis, so as to strengthen the resilience of the populations of the countries concerned;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 g (new)
Paragraph 11 g (new)
11g. Considers it essential to highlight the comparative advantages of the EU’s development cooperation policy and, in this regard, calls on the Commission, with the aid of the OECD, to define a methodology that will allow it to assess the impact of its own policy and compare it with that of the policies of other actors, particularly the so-called ‘emerging’ economies;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 h (new)
Paragraph 11 h (new)
11h. Recalls the need for a consistent approach by the 28 actors that have already been united by the Consensus and calls for a common reading of the situation and a common perception of the strategic issues; believes that, to this end, a strategic think tank at European Union level might be indispensable;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 i (new)
Paragraph 11 i (new)
11i. Calls for the creation of an independent think tank, administratively linked to the Commission, with the objective of developing analytical and advisory abilities for all European cooperation actors in order to ensure the added value of a well-coordinated, consistent policy;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 j (new)
Paragraph 11 j (new)
11j. Supports the Commission’s intention to focus activities led by the EU in each partner country on a limited number of priority sectors, but recalls that, in order to achieve the best results, it is necessary to identify these priorities in the partnership framework and to respect fully the ownership and priorities of the partner;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Regrets that the Agenda for Change tends to alter the acquis that made for cohesive development policies that sought to satisfy the common interests of the EU and its partnersSupports the Council’s recollection of ‘the Treaty obligation to take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies which are likely to affect developing countries, and to pursue these objectives in the overall framework of the Union’s external action’;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12c. Deplores the lack of political dialogue between institutional actors, which is particularly harmful to Policy Coherence for Development (PCD); deplores, in this context, the fact that the Commission’s communication does not include the three policies of the Union that have the greatest impact on developing countries, namely the trade policy, agricultural policy and fisheries policy of the Union; in this regard, agrees with the Council’s observation ‘that close cooperation between the European External Action Service and the European Commission is necessary to ensure greater consistency of EU external action and PCD’;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that an active civil society is the best guarantee – in the countries of the North and of the South – of good democratic governance, the protection of vulnerable groups of people, particularly persons with disabilities, private sector responsibility and an improved capacity to distribute the benefits of economic growth;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Expresses its hope that development cooperation will be a more prominent topic during the course of 2015, a key year in which deep reflection will be required, particularly with regard to following up on the MDGs; would like to see the Commission name 2015 the ‘European Year for Development’;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Believes that certain new challenges, particularly climate change and universal access to energy, are not sufficiently covered by the sectors of intervention selected in the Commission’s proposal;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 f (new)
Paragraph 15 f (new)
15f. Stresses the need to take account of the cross-sectional dimension of culture and the importance of including it in all foreign policies of the EU in general and in the development policy in particular;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 g (new)
Paragraph 15 g (new)
15g. Believes that the Commission must maintain the monopoly of programming in the area of development and cooperation policies;