The next big international meeting on development and trade is coming up in December in Doha, Qatar. The meetings sponsored by the United Nations hope to develop finance for the world's poor. But the recession felt thought the world may carry the agenda instead.A great article today in IPS talks about the preparations that EU member states have put into the upcoming meetings. Writer David Cronin gathers the opinions of aid groups and NGO's on what the European Union is doing.For past meetings similar to this, the EU was widely praised for their leadership, but now they are being criticized. Last week Jeffery Sachs gave what he would like to see on the meetings agenda. Today, we wanted to highlight the subject of tax havens from the IPS article. One of the most contentious issues on the...
from the BBC The European Union has opened its first immigration centre outside Europe, in Mali's capital, Bamako.Thousands of young West Africans try to make it into Europe illegally each year and many die on the way.The EU hopes the new centre will help people find legal work in Europe and cut down on illegal migration.The new centre will offer guidance on legal migration and help with job training and the search for work abroad, the European Commission says.It will also raise awareness about the dangers of illegal migration.The BBC's West Africa correspondent Will Ross says young Malians desperate for work would have hoped this new centre would be a recruitment agency, but at this point the EU is stressing that no specific job vacancies will be on offer.In the future, however,...
from IPS News European Union officials are drawing up a new strategy for giving multinational companies greater access to minerals and wood located in poor countries.With Europe importing up to 80 percent of the raw materials its firms use to manufacture goods, lawmakers in Brussels have identified taxes and other measures imposed by governments as an obstacle they should strive to remove.In November, the EU's executive branch, the European Commission, is to issue a policy statement outlining how firms based on this continent can exploit the natural resources of other countries, including those where much of the population lives in poverty.The strategy will address the 450 export restrictions in the world that the Commission has identified. These include taxes on exports which some...
from the Associated Press via GoogleBy CONSTANT BRAND – 3 hours agoBRUSSELS, Belgium — A food crisis and economic turmoil are threatening to scuttle U.N. goals to halve extreme poverty around the world by 2015, according to an EU report released Friday.The report, written by a group of researchers from European and U.S. universities, urged top global donors such as the 27-nation EU bloc, the United States and others to meet their aid promises and make sure their aid is spent effectively.At a time of tight national budgets and the U.S. financial crisis, "Progress needs to be accelerated and this requires stronger policy coherence at all levels," said Francois Bourguignon, from the Paris School of Economics, who chaired the group.Despite some advances, the researchers warned donors to...
from the Daily Press By CONSTANT BRANDBRUSSELS, Belgium - EU lawmakers voted Thursday to cut in half an ambitious target for using crop-based biofuels for 10 percent of its road transport needs by 2020.The vote by the European Parliament's industry committee deals a blow to climate change goals agreed to by EU leaders last year to try to cut carbon dioxide emissions.Environmental and aid groups had criticized the EU's 10 percent biofuels target, claiming it harmed efforts to fight global poverty and effectively tackle carbon emissions, and caused deforestation.The biofuels target is part of an ambitious climate change package the 27 EU leaders embraced last year, which they hope to enact by year's end.The overall aim is for the EU to draw 20 percent of all its energy from renewable...
from ReutersHere are some more details on the EU's newly proposed food fund. It is already being welcomed by NGO's that work in Africa. - Kale By Jeremy SmithBRUSSELS - The European Commission backed a plan on Friday to give 1 billion euros to farmers in Africa next year to help tackle high food prices and boost output, despite opposition by many EU states.The EU cash, largely the result of underspending and leeway in the bloc's massive agriculture budget, comprises 750 million euros earmarked for 2008 and the remainder for 2009. This year's amount could be given retrospectively from mid-June. At least eight EU member countries, including Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands, have questioned the legality of the scheme but have not challenged the merit of the idea.EU ministers and the...
from the Winnipeg Sun The EU is making a move to help in the global food crisis. They have asked member nations to ratify this proposal by November. - KaleBRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union is proposing a $1.6-billion, two-year emergency fund to help poor countries cope with the global food crisis.European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says the fund will aim to help mostly African nations and stabilize supply markets.The fund has been put together from cash that has gone unspent in this year’s EU farm budget.Barroso says if European nations don’t help, United Nations goals to halve world poverty would be put at risk.The EU Commission will only give out cash to countries that are found to be the most reliant on food imports and have been hardest hit by food price...
from IPS News By David CroninBRUSSELS, Jun 21 (IPS) - European Union governments have resolved to ensure that international objectives on reducing extreme poverty are realised, but have backed away from devising concrete plans for increasing the amount of aid that they give to poor countries.During a summit in Brussels Jun. 19-20, the EU's presidents and prime ministers agreed an 'agenda for action' against poverty. The summit reiterated their commitment to devoting 0.56 percent of their collective national income to development aid by 2010, rising to 0.7 percent by 2015. As a result, aid should double to 66 billion euros (103 billion dollars) within the next two years, with half of the increase going to Africa.The leaders also said that all of the EU's 27 governments are "encouraged to...
As one theory goes, better quality of democracy means lower levels of corruption. The story, then, should fit in just fine with the transition of Eastern European countries from Communism to full membership in the European Union. Does it?
This week the Economist takes a closer look at Eastern European transitions and the problem of corruption, concluding that
[f]or corrupt officials in central and eastern Europe, life has seldom been better. Joining the European Union has produced temptingly large puddles of public money to steal. And the region’s anti-corruption outfits are proving toothless, sidelined or simply embattled.
The reality is, of course, that anti-corruption successes have not been uniform across the region. Simply looking at TI CPI rankings, one can conclude...
from ReutersBy Helen PopperLIMA (Reuters) - Political differences loomed over a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Peru on Friday, threatening to undermine their efforts to fight poverty and global warming.Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales differed with his regional counterparts over free trade in the run-up to the meeting, while Venezuela's Hugo Chavez ratcheted up tensions in a conflict with neighboring Colombia.Free trade proponents like Peru are losing patience with skeptics like Bolivia's Morales, who accused Peru and Colombia this week of trying to exclude his nation from talks between the European Union and Andean countries."We can advance at different speeds, but let's advance," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said on Thursday, saying his country should be...
from Deutsche WelleThe EU-Latin America-Caribbean summit stressed in its final declaration Friday, May 16, in Lima that participants were "deeply concerned by the impact of increased food prices," citing troubled Haiti as an example."We agree that immediate measures are needed to assist the most vulnerable countries and populations affected by high food prices," the Lima Declaration said.European Union Foreign Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in the Peruvian capital that soaring global food prices constitute "a regional challenge." The EU has approved a package worth 117.25 million euros ($183 million dollars) for food aid around the world, she said.Signed by 60 countries at the end of the meeting, the declaration focused on the fight against poverty and climate change...
from All AfricaThe Monitor (Kampala)NEWS28 April 2008Posted to the web 28 April 2008By Peter NyanziBrusselsThe European Union is contemplating the way forward following the reluctance of the majority of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) they have been negotiating, five months after the expiry of the December 31 deadline set by the World Trade Organisation.EU officials told a group of ACP journalists attending a workshop on EPAs in Brussels recently that there was need for a consensus "as soon as possible" with the regional blocs and individual States that had initialled interim agreements and those had completed rejected them.Eight years ago when negotiations on EPAs began, it was with the best of intentions - to put in a...
from Deutsche WelleEuropean and Japanese leaders said urgent action was needed to tackle soaring food prices, which threaten to increase poverty and damage the world economy. The World Food Program called the crisis a "silent tsunami."Top EU leaders, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, voiced their worries about the prices of food, oil and other commodities on Wednesday, April 23."Summit leaders noted with strong concern the trends of high prices of natural resources and commodities, in particular, prices of food and oil, which could slow down the growth in [the] global economy and have negative effects on developed and developing countries," they said in a joint statement following their summit in Tokyo. The statement was...
from Reuters South Africa By David BrunnstromBRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union states must meet pledges to boost aid to poor countries, the EU executive said on Wednesday, warning that missing U.N. goals would be a disaster for developing nations and threaten global stability.Progress has been made towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the European Commission said, but each year 11 million children die of curable illnesses, one person in four lacks access to drinking water, 114 million children have no primary education and 584 million women are illiterate."Missing the Millennium Development Goals would be a disaster for developing countries, a failure for Europe, and a potential threat to global stability," the Commission said."With seven years remaining, the message...
from All AfricaAccra Mail (Accra)ANALYSISBy David Miliband and Douglas AlexanderAccraBritish Foreign Secretary and Minister for International Development respectively Globalisation is increasing interdependence. It is creating shared interests that demand co-operation between countries and regions.From climate change and economic growth, to conflict and terrorism, Europe and Africa's futures are intertwined. We must use this weekend's EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon to strengthen our relations and create a better future for the next generation.The UK has in the last ten years made massive efforts with many African countries to support African-led development. From aid to trade to debt relief to education and health we are committed to put our money and people behind a transformation in African...
from Canadian BusinessConstant BrandBRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union negotiators concluded an interim free trade pact with five east African nations, EU officials said Tuesday.The deal is part of the EU's efforts to reach new aid-and-trade deals with members of the 78-nation Africa-Caribbean and Pacific group before a Dec. 31 deadline set by the World Trade Organization.The WTO ordered the EU to bring its 30-year-old preferential trade ties Europe's former colonies in line with world trade regulations after it ruled they were unfair to nations excluded from the arrangement.The latest deal, which applies to Kenya, Unganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, is only a partial one, EU officials said.The agreement focuses on opening up bilateral trade links with these countries. But at this...
from WiredBy Chuck SquatrigliaA requirement by the European Union that biofuel meet 10 percent of member states' fuel needs by 2020 could mean disaster for the world's poor as suppliers rush to meet demand, one of the world's leading aid agencies warned today.The only way the EU will be able to meet that target, Oxfam International notes, is to import biofuels refined from sugar cane and palm oil produced in developing nations. While that could ease poverty by creating more agricultural jobs, the agency said, it is more likely to result in people being pushed from their land and crops like corn and soybeans being used for fuel instead of food."In the scramble to supply the EU and the rest of the world with biofuels, poor people are getting trampled," Robert Bailey, an Oxfam policy...
from Yahoo NewsNAIROBI (AFP) - Kenyan small scale farmers on Thursday asked the high court to block a proposed new trade agreement with the European Union that activists warn could strangle poor economies and industries.The farmers said the new tariff system, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) set to replace a current preferential arrangement, will condemn hundreds of thousands in Kenya into joblessness and deeper poverty.Kenya is among 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries enjoying special access to the EU market, but the World Trade Organisation has ruled that the deal must end by January 1, 2008 to pave the way for free markets."The EPAs would unfairly obligate ... (ACP) countries to open their borders to duty and tariff-free goods and services from Europe, with the...
from Reuters Alert NetBy Peter MurphyABIDJAN, Oct 5 (Reuters) - West Africa will miss a Dec. 31 deadline to sign a new trade partnership with the European Union and hopes to keep its preferential commercial privileges for up to two years while it negotiates, a West African official said.Ministers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) were meeting on Friday in Ivory Coast to agree a common approach ahead of talks later this month with the EU over signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).These EPAs are set to replace trade arrangements giving African, Caribbean and Pacific states preferential access to the EU market. These preferences have to be scrapped to conform with World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles.Anti-poverty campaigners say this shift to the...
from NasdaqBRUSSELS (AP)--Anti-poverty activists demonstrated outside European Union headquarters Thursday to demand a halt to free trade negotiations between the E.U. and former European colonies that they argue will undermine development in poor countries.A coalition of aid groups and anti-poverty advocates, including Oxfam and Action Aid, said five years of talks between the E.U. and members of the 78- country Asia-Caribbean-Pacific - or ACP - grouping had to be halted because they offered poor nations little to no benefit.Campaigners stacked boxes representing E.U. goods in front of the E.U.'s external relations and trade department to protest the negotiations."We think that this agreement, which is going to open these ACP countries' markets to European products is going to cause...
from All AfricaInter Press Service (Johannesburg)NEWSBy Michael DeibertParisConcern over getting too little in return for what they are being asked to give up has led some African nations to say "no" to some proposals for new trade relations with Europe next year.Several Eastern and Southern African nations have announced that they will only sign parts of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that relate to market access and development. The EPAs have been put forth as successor to the Cotonou Agreement, which expires at the end of December.The Cotonou Agreement gives 77 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries preferential access to European Union (EU) markets. Signed in Benin capital Cotonou in June 2000, the agreement replaced the 25 year-old Lome Convention (signed in the...
from Reuters Alert NetAIRO, 18 June 2007 (IRIN) - The European Commission (EC) has awarded 55.5 million euros (about US$74.2 million) for a landmark development project in Egypt's South Sinai Governorate. The aid will target some of Egypt's poorest rural populations, including Sinai's 22,000 Bedouin population, many of whom are failing to benefit from Sinai's booming tourist economy.The Sinai peninsula, which returned to Egypt from Israel after the 1979 Camp David Accord, has witnessed rapid development since then in the tourism sector, which dominates the region's economy. Around 110,000 people now live in the governorate.However, despite being officially one of Egypt's richest governorates, social divisions remain high. Much of the Bedouin population is not officially registered with...
from Christian TodayCampaigners across Europe are to ask their governments to threaten to withhold funds from the World Bank unless specific changes are made to policy and practice.by Anne ThomasCampaigners across Europe will gather near the French Finance Ministry in Paris on Monday 5 March to put pressure on civil servants who are meeting there to discuss donor government’s contributions to the World Bank’s coffers.Protestors are to ask their governments to threaten to withhold funds from the World Bank unless specific changes are made to policy and practice, Christian Aid reports.Sixty NGOs from 15 countries, including Christian Aid, are urging European governments to demand that the World Bank end economic policy conditionality and phase out spending on fossil fuel operations.They...
from Zee NewsPakistan is likely to loose its biggest market with the European Union declining to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with it, arguing that the size of Pakistan's economy is not big enough for such a deal. Against the backdrop of the EU's refusal to sign the FTA, Pakistan would be the only country in the region in the coming years to lose its biggest market, a senior Pakistan government official told the news today."Pakistan's Reliance on the EU market and the US is too much and in case the EU market is lost, Pakistan would stand nowhere with regard to exports," the Daily quoted an unnamed official as saying. Commerce Secretary Asif Shah admitted that the EU has based its decision keeping in view the size of Pakistan's economy. "On this particular point we have successfully...
from Business WeekThe European Commission's findings show underprivilege is most dire in Poland and Lithuania. Sweden and the Czech Republic look best.by Honor MahonyOne in six Europeans lives below the national poverty line, while 10 percent of people live in households where there is nobody working, according to the European Commission's annual social inclusion report published on Monday (19 February).Conducted in 2004, the study showed that 16 percent of EU citizens lived under the poverty threshold which is defined as 60 percent of their country's median income.The poverty statistics ranged from 9-10 percent in Sweden and the Czech Republic to 21 percent in Poland and Lithuania while in all countries except the Nordic states, Greece and Cyprus, children are often at greater risk of...
from The AustralianBronwen Maddox, BrusselsGLOBAL trade talks intended to improve the lives of billions of poor people stood on the brink of failure last night as US President George W. Bush prepared to resume negotiations with Europe.European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Mr Bush could either breathe new life into trade negotiations or effectively kill the five-year process."We are on a knife-edge," Mr Mandelson said, before the meeting with Mr Bush and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab."We have to engage President Bush personally, because this deal can only be done with his authority."Talks were suspended last July because of international disagreement over cutting tariffs and farm subsidies.The financial consequences of failing to liberalise World Trade Organisation rules...