Mr President, I was able to be in Porto Alegre and can indeed confirm that the large number of participants, the diverse regional nature of these participants and of the organisations they represented and also the richness of the debates and of the proposals and conclusions drafted and adopted in the course of the work undertaken there on the main issues of the day established the World Social Forum as an unparalleled expression of social movements and, in general, of world civil society. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations quite rightly said, these factors confirmed the event especially as a crucial and undeniable milestone in the quest for solutions to the enormous challenges facing humanity today in the various plans put forward and also in creating a real alternative to the neo-liberal model. Held once again in Brazil, but this time coinciding with the election and inauguration of President Lula da Silva as President of that country, and since he was one of the major driving forces of the World Social Forum, this event was, of course, influenced by these factors. These factors today represent new and more promising prospects, especially demonstrating a new attitude that represents a clear break with the status quo that has prevailed in recent times. The need to give substance to a new world order of progress and peace, proclaimed by President Lula da Silva in Porto Alegre and also in Davos, was of course the central issue in Porto Alegre and probably represents the greatest challenge we face today. Consequently, and as was made clear there, the United Nations must be given a new boost and a new profile. It is also crucial to thoroughly change, reform and readjust basic methods and guidelines, in particular of some of the key instruments of the current world order such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. Nevertheless, coming at a time when absurd US intervention is being planned for Iraq, the World Social Forum was able, clearly and in line with the will of the broad majority of world public opinion, unequivocally to affirm its rejection of such a war. Porto Alegre was not, therefore, by any stretch of the imagination, merely a critical counterpoint to Davos. In its three versions, it established itself as a fundamental pillar in the construction of a real alternative to the neo-liberal model that Davos broadly represented. This model is inextricably linked to the situations of social injustice, iniquity, division and crisis that we are seeing today. For this very reason and while Porto Alegre grows and is accepted, Davos, which is extremely elitist, is increasingly redundant and caught up in the contradictions inherent in the model it advocates and in the damaging effects it has. Solutions to these crises were sought unsuccessfully in Davos, because there was no consideration and even less analysis of the underlying causes of this crisis. Attention was focused on economic growth, but the importance of the fair distribution of wealth that this growth should provide was overlooked. What was omitted in particular were the damaging effects that the primacy of the market causes, especially in terms of deepening the North-South divide, of increasing poverty in the world and of environmental degradation. It therefore comes as no surprise that President Lula da Silva’s speech in Davos should have caused such ripples. I hope that it does considerably more than this in future. As a matter of fact, in this context, I would say that the European Union can and must contribute to ensuring that it does.

Political group: GUE-NGL