S&D
14-07-2009 MEP Claude Moraes wants to be sure EPA's will serve development
Claude Moraes (S&D) rightly asks the Commission how they will safeguard development needs of West African states in the ongoing Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations. Read more »
05-08-2009 True impact studies on EPAs: a myth?
When the EU signed the controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Cameroon, as it has with other developing countries, its was claimed by the Commission that many impact studies had been done. Kader Arif (S&D) questions both this claim as studies are hard to find - and the fact that any impact study where available seriously proves the benefits of the agreement. Read more »
18-12-2009 ACP-EU JPA Question by MEP Kader Arif on EPA
The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and ACP Countries were initially meant to merge development policy and trade policy into a comprehensive framework with the Cotonou agreement and in order to promote regional integration. Negotiations on regional agreements have been extremely difficult, and therefore interim EPAs have been signed with individual ACP countries, on the basis on regional negotiations. These interim EPAs only reinforce disintegration and trade policies that have had a strong priority over development policies in the agreements, creating incoherence between the two areas. Read more »
29-07-2009 MEPs concerned about Uzbeki children
Different MEPs from parties such as the ECR, ALDE and S&D have raised the issue of forced child labour that is used by the Uzbeki government in order to provide for harvest of their cotton each year. While this led to a call for boycott by the World Fair Trade Organisation, the EU the biggest single destination for Uzbek cotton continued importing the product under the preferential system. Graham Watson (ALDE) particularly highlights the incoherence of this by referring to the commitments the Commission made to eradicating child labour at a global level. We would like to thank Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE), Roger Helmer (ECR), Graham Watson (ALDE), Claude Moraes (S&D) and Charles Tannock (ECR) for raising this issue. Read more »
19-02-2010 MEP Guerrero Salom asks about Illicit Financial Flows
MEP Enrique Guerrero Salom expresses his concerns for the illicit financial flows that come from developing countries. He quotes the World Bank, stating that about 500 to 800 billion dollars in illicit finances flow comes from developing countries, which drain hard currency reserves, increases inflation and reduces tax revenues that undercut the opportunities that developing countries have to develop. Read more »
09-03-2010 MEPs Submit Amendments to INTA Opinion on PCD
On the 2nd of February the amendments on the INTA Draft Opinion on EU Policy Coherence for Development and the Official Development Assistance plus concept by Joe Higgins were due. On the 23rd of February, these amendments were voted on. All in all the amendments were a reflection of the never ending debate on neoliberalism and the international capitalist system within the committee on international trade; the EPP and the ECR versus the Greens and S&D. Some really good amendments were written, with references to incoherences that Fair Politics has also tackled like TRIPS and access to medicines, biofuels, agricultural subsidies, migration issues and partnership agreements with ACP countries. Despite this, some of these amendments were not adopted and amendments that were less progressive towards PCD, were. Read more »
25-09-2009 MEP Asa Westlund (S&D) concerned about EU demands in IPR in different Latin American negotiations
MEP Asa Westlund (S&D) asked the Commission whether it was true that they are negotiating an extension of patent terms and protection of data for medicine, as well as removing the Doha exception, in the negotiations with Peru and Colombia, but also with Central America. Read more »
18-12-2009 ACP-EU JPA Question by MEP Martin on Access to Medicines
As one can read in the Fair Politics Case Study on TRIPS and Medicines, the access to medicines for developing countries is of often difficult. Although the medicines exist, patients in developing countries can commonly not afford them due to the patents on the drugs. The development efforts of the EU prioritize access to affordable medicines for developing countries, but trade, industry and enterprise policies delay and complicate the access because of beliefs in the innovative force of intellectual property rights. Read more »
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