Parliament debates Commission proposal to tackle food crisis in developing countries
During a recent debate on the subject, the European Parliament welcomed the Commission's proposed 1 billion euro "facility for rapid response to soaring food prices in developing countries", which was adopted on 18 July. Koos Richelle, Director General of DG EuropeAid, told Parliament that the two objectives of the facility were to enhance agricultural production and support social security nets in developing countries.
MEPs urged the Commission to act quickly on the proposal and also raised a number of concerns. Irish MEP Gay Mitchell complained of the lack of "comitology" (the usual process of consultation with committees), a criticism which was also voiced by several other MEPs. Mr Richelle responded by stressing the need for a rapid procedure. "If there will be a conciliation process after the October session in Strasbourg plus the comitology and calls for proposal process, there will be no commitment before 2009," he said.
While other MEPs raised the controversial issues of genetically modified crops and land ownership, Mr Richelle stated that the Commission did not want to get involved in those debates.
Mr Richelle announced that, as a conciliation process is foreseen, a decision would be taken on 25 November 2008. Mr Mitchell informed Parliament that amendments should be in by 16 September and that the vote would be on 7 October. It was further announced that an additional meeting will be held on 10 September in the presence of the World Bank, WFP and others.
Source: European Parliament monitoring report by EEPA (AS)
Press breakfast briefing on the new 2015-Watch report
On 27 August, a press breakfast briefing was held at the office of Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA) in Brussels to present the new 2015-Watch report, which is produced by EEPA. 2015-Watch is an annual publication by Alliance2015, a partnership of European NGOs. The series monitors the EU's contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), taking a different special focus for each edition.
This year's report, entitled "The EU's contribution to the Millennium Development Goals: From Rhetoric to Results?", evaluates whether EU aid has translated its rhetorical commitment to poverty eradication into tangible results. It finds a lack of results on MDGs in EU aid, limited democratic control and inadequate attention to civil society's role in holding governments to account.
The report will be launched at the European Parliament in an informal hearing on 16 September, presided over by MEP Gay Mitchell. Those interested in attending should register by contacting EEPA.
NGOs speak out on aid effectiveness ahead of Accra High Level Forum
On 2-4 September, over 800 representatives of multilateral and bilateral donors, developed and developing country governments and civil society will gather in Accra, Ghana, for the OECD-DAC's Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. Ahead of this forum on 30 August - 1 September, civil society organisations hosted a Parallel Forum on Aid Effectivenes, bringing together more than 400 CSOs, including Eurostep and its partners, to discuss and finalise their recommendations to the High Level Forum decision-makers.
Civil society organisations including Eurostep have criticised the contradictions between the principles of the Paris Declaration of 2005 (country ownership, alignment to country priorities, harmonisation of the terms for aid, management of aid for results, and mutual accountability for these results) and their methods of implementation.
A press statement following from the Parallel Forum explicitly sets out the concerns and demands of the CSOs, including calling on the High Level Forum to "set time-bound and monitorable targets to stop short-term aid and commit to ensuring that 80% of aid is committed for at least 3-5 years by 2010", and to "reduce the burden of conditionality by 2010 so that aid agreements are based on mutually agreed objectives."
African week in the European Parliament 8-12 September
During the week 8-12 September 2008, the European Parliament will host African Week, as part of the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue (EYID), during which committees and delegations will put a special focus on African issues in their agendas. The week's activities will include a roundtable on the role of diaspora in development on the evening of Wednesday 10 September and cultural events both inside and outside Parliament such as music, dance and cinema.
A key event will be the Extraordinary Meeting of African Week on the morning of Thursday 11 September, which will be attended by EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering, Commission President José-Manuel Barroso and a panel on intercultural dialogue including the Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka.
External guests who want to participate in African Week should register (with name, nationality, date of birth and say which event they would like to attend) one week in advance at the following address:
SAARC members to hold food bank meeting in Kathmandu
On October 15-16, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will meet in Kathmandu to discuss setting up a regional food bank to ensure food availability in the region during times of emergency. All SAARC members ratified the agreement on the establishment of the SAARC food bank at the Colombo summit in July. The prososal is for 250,000 metric tonnes of food to be stockpiled for distribution in case of a particular scarcity within the South Asian region.
Bangladesh, which has faced serious food shortages following two rounds of floods and landslides and a massive cyclone last year, is a particular supporter of the initiative.
"The short and mid-term strategies and projects will include issues of agriculture research and prevention of soil health degradation, development and sharing of agricultural technologies, and sharing of the best practices in procurement and distribution and management of the climatic and disease-related risks in agriculture," said Qazi Imtiaz Hossain, Director General of SAARC at Bangladesh's foreign office.
