Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to point out to you that this report seems to me to be absolutely fundamental. It is fundamental because one of the prime objectives of the European Union’s development policy is to encourage the eradication of poverty in the developing countries. In the same way, we believe that the consolidation of democracy and of the rule of law, as well as respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, are objectives that we should strive to achieve. We should be deluding ourselves, however, if we were to believe that the battle against poverty can be fought without the aid of women. Women are the pillars of society, particularly of the societies with which we are concerned here. At the same time, it has to be said that, along with children, they are among the most vulnerable people when it comes to disease, poverty, illiteracy and war. For this reason, all the strategies that we implement and all the projects that we want to develop must make it possible to contribute towards the emancipation and action of women in every field and in every country. Women must participate in a very practical way in the development of their country, because each woman is a potential agent of success, change and development. The report that we are discussing today is, I hope, one of the fundamental steps in this approach to cooperation, because it makes provision for a number of measures to promote, to develop and to support practical projects in this area. It is important that they should be practical. What we want this regulation to be is a catalyst, a driving force for gender-equality initiatives, capitalising on pilot initiatives, defining good practices and providing information about them. It covers the period from 2004 to 2006. It seems essential to us, therefore, that by January the regulation can start to be applied so that calls for tender can be issued for the projects. I believe that there are hundreds of people out there who are waiting for our decision and, if we equivocate, the consequences will be damaging to all those involved locally who want to participate and act, in practical terms, in order to achieve equality of opportunity. In this report, it seemed to me vital to consider, before anything else, access by women of all ages to all resources and services such as health, education, training and infrastructures. We should also note that women are excluded from participation, access and control in all sectors. As a woman, but above all as a democrat, I hope to be able to encourage such participation in all the countries concerned. I also hope that the main beneficiaries of our aid will be the local agents and women’s organisations who work tirelessly in order to bring about a change in mentality in favour of gender equality. In everything we say, however, and in everything we hope for, there is always the budgetary aspect. For this regulation, the European Commission has given us EUR 9 million. Perhaps that is not very much to us, but it represents a veritable fortune for those involved at the coalface, enabling them to undertake specific projects. Nevertheless, we wanted to ask for EUR 11 million, because it seems to us that an additional EUR 2 million is not very much. However, as Commissioner Nielson has just explained, it seems that this is impossible. I therefore accepted the report at first reading, with the support of my fellow Members, in order to encourage practical action, in other words in order to get this regulation adopted as rapidly as possible, in fact tomorrow, so that it will be in force in January 2004. It seems, however, that that is not the view of other political groups. It seems that we shall have to go in to battle again, because we might be able to scrape together a few more pennies and that is what counts at the coalface. I should like, however, to ask all those who are due to speak in the debate that we shall be holding in this House tomorrow to give due thought to the fact that in doing so we are taking on a clear and precise responsibility to start a second reading procedure and that we do not know how long that procedure will take. I also think that all the organisations which are affected by our failure to reach agreement are entitled to expect from us, and from the Council and the Commission, mature behaviour and a practical indication of our desire to see these objectives attained. As far as I am concerned, if I still have any decision-making powers as the rapporteur, I would argue once again that this text should enter into force in January 2004. Whatever happens, if the negotiations that we shall be holding this evening and tomorrow make it necessary for us, at any given moment, to reconsider our position, I can only regret it, but in that case I shall immediately seek a meeting with the Council and the Commission so that we can reach agreement as quickly as possible.

Political group: PSE