Secretary General,Deputy Secretary General,Mr. President,Excellencies,Distinguished delegates,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Georgia align themselves with this declaration.
Mr. President,
I would like to begin by expressing my congratulations to Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi on his re-appointment as Secretary-General for UNCTAD. I am confident in that Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi will continue the strive for the success of the organisation.I would also like to extend my congratulations to His Excellency Ambassador Djani and the other outgoing Board Members for their excellent work during the past year. His Excellency Ambassador Jean Feyder, my congratulations to you as the new President for the Trade and Development Board, and the best wishes for a successful completion of your responsibilities. In addition to the Vice Presidents, I would also like to congratulate you upon your election. Let me also thank the UNCTAD secretariat for their preparations ahead of this meeting.
To all of you, rest assured that you have our fullest support and cooperation in working toward the successful outcome of this meeting.
When UNCTAD came into existence 45 years ago, one can imagine that the vision of its first Secretary-General, Raúl Prebisch, would be for the organization to eventually surpass its “raison d’être” as a forum for less-developed countries once the forces of development unleashed to eradicate familiar concepts of poverty and inequality. Today being witnesses to the disastrous effects of the global economic crisis, it is easy to feel that the hopeful wish is distant still.
A global crisis needs a global solution. This is the mantra that has been widely used in the formulation of how to put the world on a recovery path from the crisis. Unfortunately just repeating it does not induce change alone. The EU is therefore delighted to see that a number of concerted actions have emerged on the part of policy-makers to mitigate the severe impacts of the crisis. As well as actions designed to set the international community on a path of sustainable economic recovery. Despite these positive steps, challenges remain for governments and multilateral organizations.
An international response must not only focus on putting the world back on track, but needs also to see the crisis as an opportunity for change, in order to address developing countries’ concerns and enable them to continue on a trajectory of growth through trade, investment, aid, and technological innovation. The vision of Prebisch may seem more distant than ever before, but if we catch the momentum, it might actually be closer than we think.
The EU is strongly committed to fulfil the aspirations set out in the Millennium Development Goals. The EU will take targeted measures aimed at enhancing trade and promoting investment. It will also support productive capacities, gender-equality, employment and sustainable development through aid and technical cooperation.
The “EU Vulnerability FLEX” instrument, has been designed to assist the ACP countries worst hit by the downturn in trade and falling revenue, and will provide 500 million Euros during 2009 and 2010 for the purpose of ensuring social safety net spending. The “Food Facility” is the EU development response to the food crisis, providing 1 billion Euros over 3 years in order to get agriculture back on its feet. The package targets the 23 countries most impacted by the crisis.
Notwithstanding the global economic and financial crisis, the EU reaffirms its commitment to achieve the Official Development Assistance targets in accordance with the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, as well as in the correspondence to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action.
When it comes to development financing, the EU is the world leader. The assistance that it provides to developing countries comprises more than half of total global official development assistance. The EU’s collective ODA increased in 2008, reaching more than 68 billion US dollars. The EU further reaffirms its commitment to channel at least 50 % of collective aid increases to Africa and to collectively meet ODA provisions of 0,15 % to 0,20 % of GNP to LDCs, while fully respecting differentiated commitments as set out in the Brussels Programme of Action. This effort must be maintained and even intensified in order to reach the targets that the EU has set for itself for 2010 and 2015.
Ensuring that these resources are not rendered inefficient or wasted by policy incoherence is of utmost importance. Policy measures undertaken to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis, as well as other policies, have a strong impact on developing countries. The EU concept of Policy Coherence for Development aims to build synergies between various policies and development objectives. This will increase the effectiveness of development aid. The EU therefore calls on its partners and international organisations to ensure that all measures are taken to tackle the economic and financial crisis, and to take full account of the needs of and the consequences for developing countries.
The EU further stresses the importance of other sources of financing such as export credits and trade finance; micro finance, private capital flows, especially foreign direct investment. The EU thus welcomed the agreement from the G20 London Summit, which ensured the availability of 250 billion US dollars over the next two years through export credits, investment agencies and through Multilateral Development Banks, and is pleased to note that this target has already been met and even exceeded. Additional guarantees include increasing resources for International Financial Institutions, so as to boost their capacity to help countries in need, and to double the access for low income countries to concessional lending from the IMF, using additional resources consistent with its new income model.
The EU calls upon all donors to fulfil their past pledges, recalling the G8 in Italy, the G20 London Summit, the Millennium Declaration, the 2005 World Summit, the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development.
Global economic turmoil has indeed pointed to the need for reform of today’s international financial architecture. In order to restore confidence in the banking system and to prevent future crises of a similar nature, the new international financial system must be based on the principles of accountability and transparency and establish a bigger role for international financial institutions in monitoring economic risks.
A reform agenda must also reach the mandates, scope and governance of the International Financial Institutions to ensure greater voice and representation for emerging and developing countries.
Climate change poses a significant threat to the development success of poor countries around the world. Thus, the EU remains committed to reach a comprehensive global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. Significant financial resources will be required for mitigation and adaptation actions, particularly in the most vulnerable developing countries. The European Union will take on its fair share of financing for developing-country efforts in this regard.
The EU believes that free and fair trade is a key element for recovery. An ambitious, balanced and comprehensive outcome of the WTO Doha Round would create a welcomed boost to the world economy. It would also enable developing countries to reap more fully the beneficial effects of world trade. By acting as an insurance against protectionism, which has proved so damaging in previous downturns, an agreement would lock-in existing levels of openness and create additional market access opportunities for developing-country products.
Aid-for-Trade remains an important tool to support developing countries in maximizing market access opportunities that emerge from trade liberalization and regional integration. As emphasised by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy at the Second Global Review of Aid-for-Trade, Aid-for-Trade is an investment that will allow many developing countries to recover from the crisis by enhancing their trade capacity. In this respect, the EU has delivered 7.17 billion Euros worth of Aid-for-Trade in 2007.
The level and stability of commodity prices remains an important policy issue, as the outlook for some developing countries is heavily determined by future prices of primary commodity exports. Given the harsh effects created by recent commodity price volatility, it is essential that developing countries become more resilient to external fluctuations in price, supply and demand. The EU is aware of the difficulties involved in achieving this outcome, which will require significant financial and technical assistance. Effective insurance mechanisms; sound macroeconomic policies and structural efforts to increase productive capacities; economic diversification and enhanced regional economic integration are key to this long-standing problem.
Regional integration, in particular the promotion of intra-regional trade blocs, will also help to mitigate the long-term effects of the crisis. The EU recognizes that regional integration is an important policy option to ensure that developing countries have the ability to improve their own position in world markets, by creating larger regional markets and improving the overall business environment. This is particularly important for the poorest countries in improving product competitiveness, and attracting a larger volume of investment, placing them in a better position to take advantage of emerging market opportunities in new export markets, including those of other developing countries. The Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries are tools to achieve these goals.
Finally, the European Union emphasises the importance of ownership of development processes. In times of crisis, it is more essential than ever for developing countries to ensure that scarce resources are used responsibly and effectively. The EU considers good governance as one of the key factors in national development strategies. The EU will continue to support efforts in the areas of good governance, the rule of law, institution-building, transparency, and sound macroeconomic, fiscal and public financial management. It will further support its partners’ efforts in mobilizing domestic resources through an increase in tax collection capacities, and a reduction in tax evasion and illegal capital flows. The EU is also committed to fighting corruption as well as reinforcing existing international conventions in these areas.
UNCTAD, as a forum for developing-country voices, must continue to provide sound research and analysis in the field of trade and development and in the interrelated areas of finance, investment, technology and sustainable development, including the implications of the economic crisis on trade and investment flows. In addition, it must actively seek cooperation within and outside of the UN family in order to enhance policy synergy, and avoid duplication of work.
Thank you for your attention.