A3-0218/94

Resolution on cooperation with the developing countries in Asia and Latin America (ALA)

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motions for resolutions by Mr Sánchez García on:

-the international ecotourism project 'Europe to South America: following Humboldt to the Canaries and Venezuela' (B3-0293/93),

-the need to set up a development cooperation programme in Guatemala (B3-0620/93),

-having regard to Regulation (EEC) No. 443/92 of 25 February 1992 on financial and technical assistance to, and economic cooperation with, the developing countries in Asia and Latin America, which makes provision for a sum of ECU 2750 million over five years (1991-95),

-having regard to the cooperation agreements signed with some countries and groups of countries in Latin America and Asia,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the opinions of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A3-0218/94),

1.Underlines the importance of the annual Interministerial Conferences under the San José process, the EC-Rio Group meetings and EC-Latin America interparliamentary meetings, and the regular meetings between EC and ASEAN foreign ministers;

2.Reaffirms the need for a new EC-ASEAN agreement covering all fields of cooperation and include the issue of human rights and democratization and calls on those Member States which are blocking a new cooperation agreement to drop their opposition to it;

3.Considers that the EU must continue to play a fundamental role in strengthening democracy and respect for human rights in Latin America and Asia, which should remain an essential element of cooperation; stresses that there must be no discrepancy between the formal institutionalization of human rights and their actual application;

4.Welcomes the fact that the Commission will be setting up an independent inspectorate in accordance with Parliament's repeated requests, given that the existing evaluation service does not constitute an adequate alternative to an inspectorate, as it does not have an independent position within the Commission and focuses too much on project appraisal and too little on broader policy assessment;

5.Notes that the agricultural sector and a secure food supply represent the most important chapters in terms of projects (80%) and funds (70% of financial and technical assistance) and that Community projects have been based more on agricultural production than on rural development;

6.Observes that the ALA countries, with some exceptions, are no longer tackling only rural development problems but need to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by greater economic and trade cooperation and that in the aftermath of structural adjustment programmes, the Latin American economy has grown in absolute terms, but that the Latin American people have become poorer despite EU cooperation efforts;

7.Takes the view that evaluation in the strict sense of the term is required (not merely budgetary/ex-post evaluation) to enable the quantitative and qualitative scope of cooperation to be studied: actual utilization of budget lines, effectiveness of third-generation agreements and multi-annual planning, with an analysis being made of the effectiveness of aid to its beneficiaries and its actual impact on the population in terms of development;

8.Calls on the Commission to continue along its chosen path of improving methods of preparation for and implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects and to develop in depth an integrated approach to the management of the whole project cycle; takes the view, furthermore, that the Commission, together with the beneficiary countries, must consider the extent of the latter's institutional, administrative and project management capacities;

9.Calls on the Commission to identify priority sectors by mutual agreement with the beneficiary countries and to consider whether it would be advisable to concentrate a greater percentage of resources in each country on structural operations and operations aimed at consolidating sectoral policies, which would entail planning based on countries or regions;

10.Regrets the limited degree of multiannual planning of cooperation and the scant attention paid to women in drawing up and implementing projects (only 20% of projects' terms of reference refer to women); regrets, further, the extremely limited assessment of the environmental impact of projects;

11.Calls on the Commission to increase its support for the poorest sections of urban populations, which are most severely hit by structural adjustment, and to study, together with the countries most affected and NGOs, large-scale literacy and vocational training campaigns and campaigns against child labour;

12.Calls on the Member States to introduce policies on private and public investment in the ALA countries so as to foster industrial cooperation, technology transfer and scientific and technological cooperation through small- and medium-sized undertakings and joint ventures, thus establishing a system of coordination such as to eliminate obstacles which might arise from cooperation between different countries;

13.Takes the view that the Commission should reassess the role played by delegations and, specifically:

(a)grant them greater decision-making powers in relation to the projects, programmes and policies to be pursued in each country or region;

(b)provide them with increased financial and human resources including experts on environmental and gender concerns to enable them to take not only economic but also social and environmental aspects duly into account and to provide comprehensive information for the local population affected by the projects as well as for economic and social operators on the opportunities offered by the European market, the possibilities provided by the third-generation agreements and the various instruments of economic cooperation (ALINVEST, ECIP, BC-NET and COOPECO), as well as access to EIB loans;

14.Recalls the provisions of the EC Treaty (130x) on a policy of cooperation coordinated with the Member States and other international donors such as the World Bank and the IMF and calls on the Council to make greater efforts to achieve coordination in this area; congratulates the Commission on its outstanding recent coordination initiatives in the Philippines, Pakistan, Nicaragua and Peru;

15.Considers that, to achieve greater consistency and policy coordination between the European Union and the Member States in the field of development cooperation, there is a need for better parliamentary monitoring of funds for cooperation, both by the European Parliament and the national parliaments;

16.Welcomes the decision taken by the Council of Finance Ministers in April 1992 (Oporto) to include Latin America and Asia among the regions entitled to benefit from EIB loans - as called for by Parliament on many occasions - and the fact that they have already been used in Argentina, Costa Rica and Thailand; trusts that this possibility will be extended to other countries;

17.Asks the countries of Latin America and Asia to increase their endeavours in the field of regional integration as regards trade, customs and monetary policies;

18.Underlines the importance of the European market for Latin American and Asian countries and points out that the GATT agreements create favourable conditions for the entry into the European market of agricultural products from the South;

19.Considers, nevertheless, that the harmonization of technical, environmental, hygiene, plant-health and other rules which do not relate to the commercial field must not be used as a pretext to prevent imports of certain products;

20.Considers that the Commission should not take over cooperation activities for which the Member States or their economic and social operators are better prepared;

21.Calls on the countries of Latin America, Asia and the European Union to do more to cultivate their historical and cultural links (cultural exchanges between universities, protection of the cultural heritage);

22.Demands that the Commission comply with Article 16 of Regulation (EEC) No. 443/92 which provides for an annual report to Parliament on the implementation of cooperation with the ALA developing countries;

23.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments of the Member States.