Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Nielson, if we do not have coherence in the various EU policy areas, then there is no chance, as it were, of development policy actually proving successful. For we cannot build something up on the one hand, only to tear down the product of our labours soon thereafter on the other! Unfortunately, it has to be said that, for the most part, EU policies are far from coherent. This is particularly true of agricultural policy. For the European Union continues, on account of its aggressive export policy and market intervention tactics, to impede both the independent agricultural development of developing countries and their endeavours to see their products adequately represented in our markets. This kind of agricultural policy does not just harm the small and medium-sized producers in these countries but has the self-same effect on producers in the European Union. They are being played off against each other. It is time that someone made this perfectly plain here. When I see, Mr President-in-Office of the Council Amado, that a country such as Brazil, which has a surface area of over 8 million square kilometres, now has to import basic foodstuffs, and that almost 40 million people are still undernourished and starving, then I am bound to say that this also has something to do with the way we pursue our agricultural policy, inasmuch as we produce our beef mountains with the soya from this country, only to store them in cold-storage again! It is therefore quite clear that the policy must change, and of course that the developing countries must also implement changes that will benefit regional structures. What will also be of decisive importance in the future is the kind of policy the European Union intends to pursue, which will be of benefit to the countries of the south in the World Trade Organisation in particular, how it intends to set about giving these countries a voice, an appropriate amount of say, and of course, how the European Union intends to open up its markets to these countries. For it will not do for us to ask the developing countries, of all countries, to open their markets up to us, while we carry on building fortress Europe over here. The TRIPS regulation also fails miserably to accommodate the resources in these countries, for under its terms they would have to pay dearly again for their basic products, which will have been patented by us beforehand. Allow me to make another point on coherence within Parliament. Votes are often taken in the most diverse committees, as well as here in plenary sitting, which in itself is not coherent and does not accord with the tenets of development policy. Therefore, as a sector, development policy ought to cut across all committees, and it should not just be discussed once a year, like today, when it happens to be convenient. The policies of the 15 EU countries must also be coordinated accordingly, for it will not do for us to carry on making development policy foot the bill for national interests and attaching conditions to development aid such as, “If you buy our arms, you will get more development aid!” This situation cannot be allowed to continue in the future. There is an urgent need for more coherence, and this does not just apply to the European Commission, and to the Union, but to us here in this Chamber too!

Political group: Verts-ALE