Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 June 2004
64 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on the outcome of the recent EU conference on development aid at Dublin Castle; his views on whether the “Everything but Arms” agreement negotiated by the EU in 2001 to ensure the 49 poorest countries in the world have unrestricted access to EU markets for all goods other than sugar, rice, and bananas, is working effectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18833/04]
View answerOn 1 June 2004, I chaired an informal meeting of EU development co-operation Ministers at Dublin Castle. Ministers had a very useful meeting on a number of issues of relevance to the global development debate. The EU is the largest provider of aid worldwide. With a population since enlargement of 450 million, the EU is now in an even stronger position to make a real difference to the lives of poor people in the developing world. To do that, we have to use our aid effectively and implement coherent policies that will contribute to poverty reduction. At the beginning of Ireland's Presidency, we said that poverty eradication should be the central objective of the Union's development policy. In the long-run, meeting the millennium development goals, MDGs, will be the yardstick for our performance.
At our meeting in Dublin Castle, Ministers discussed a number of issues which would help to advance these priorities, including: the need for greater aid effectiveness to ensure that development co-operation is well managed and that EU aid quality continually improves; the importance of a strong voice for development within the European Commission; the relationship between development and security — where we recognised that there can be no long-term development without creating secure environments, but equally, that long-term security is dependent on sound development; and the appalling humanitarian situation in Darfur, Sudan, in respect of which we expressed support for the efforts of the African Union, AU, to establish a ceasefire monitoring mechanism for Darfur and backed the immediate deployment of the AU ceasefire monitoring mechanism to oversee the ceasefire on the ground. The development campaigner, Bono, joined us at lunch for a discussion of debt and trade issues.
Under the "Everything but Arms", EBA, initiative, which was agreed by the European Union in February 2001, the 49 least developed countries, LDCs, both within and outside of the African, Caribbean and Pacific, ACP, group, have gained duty and quota-free admission to the Community market for all but three products from March 2001. In three sensitive commodity sectors, full and free access will be achieved more slowly and on a phased basis by 2006 for bananas and by 2009 for rice and sugar. The EBA initiative is a particularly significant breakthrough for the LDCs as it offers market-free access in areas such as agricultural and textile products in which they are most likely to be competitive and which, up to now, have been highly protected. Only moderate gains have been achieved from the EBA initiative to date. I urge the LDCs to make every use of the general quota and duty-free access to the EU to which they are now entitled.
I refer also to the related issue of current negotiations on economic partnership agreements, EPAs, between the EU and the ACP states. Under the Cotonou agreement, the current all-ACP non-reciprocal tariff preferences will be maintained only until 31 December 2007. This agreement introduced a framework for the negotiation of new reciprocal trading arrangements between the EU and the ACP states known as EPAs. EPAs should help to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty, increase ACP competitiveness and the gradual integration of ACP states into the world economy. EPAs are mandated to enter into force from 2008 until 2020. ACP states are able to enter into such arrangements individually, or as part of a group, the latter intended to build upon existing regional integration schemes. EPA negotiations have now commenced between the EU and West Africa, Central Africa, the Caribbean, and East and Southern Africa.
