Madam President, Commissioner Patten, our world leaders will be meeting in Genoa in just over two weeks’ time. The topic of debate will be globalisation and, specifically, the fight against poverty, the environment and conflict prevention. The streets of Genoa will once again be teeming with demonstrators. Unfortunately, the images of the rioting and stone-throwing minority will again attract a great deal of TV and media attention. I condemn this minority, for a stone is neither right nor left-wing, it is simply destructive. I do support, however, the protest of the minority of peaceful campaigners who oppose a world trade system which leads to the unequal distribution of wealth. World trade has never flourished more than it has now. It remains therefore shocking that the 20 richest countries earn, on average, 37 times more than the 20 poorest countries. A divide which, forty years ago, was only half that size. Poor countries, and particularly the poor population of those countries, do not benefit from worldwide prosperity. Nearly half of the world population has to survive on less than USD 2 a day, and one fifth of the world population lives under the internationally recognised, absolute poverty line of USD 1 per day. In the light of this, it is, and remains, entirely unacceptable for the developing countries to be forced to open their markets to our products, while all kinds of trade barriers in the West appear to constitute an impossible hurdle for the developing countries to negotiate. The European Union has taken an initial step with the exemplary ‘Everything but arms’ initiative. Europe must now keep the momentum going. I would especially call on all other Western industrial superpowers, including the United States, that are now grossly neglecting their duty to follow in the footsteps of this European initiative. Similarly, a fresh WTO round is only credible if it actually becomes a development round. World trade with the intention of fighting poverty. That would be a powerful incentive on the road to the fair distribution of wealth. We need much more than that, however. Due to a lack of political commitment, the international agreements, such as universal access to primary education and basic health care by 2015, will not be achieved. Even in 2001, 130 million children never attend school and another 150 million children start primary education only to stop it before they can read and write. The AIDS epidemic is causing an unheard of social breakdown in the developing countries. Financial pledges in Genoa for an international fund for poverty-related illnesses are, of course, laudable and particularly newsworthy, but they remain the proverbial drop in the ocean if those same donors do not even meet the international agreements: 0.7% of the gross national product for development aid. That also applies to Member States such as England and Germany, but mainly to the United States which trails behind with 0.1%. The topic of instability within the financial world markets will also be discussed in Genoa. In my opinion, it would be useful if the combined world leaders were to back the intention of the Belgian Presidency to study the scope of a Tobin tax on international high-speed capital. It is precisely this form of tax levy, much maligned by, inter alia, the United States that can prevent financial crises, and the profit from this could subsequently be invested in development projects. I shall be assessing the G8 Summit on the basis of actual political commitment to fight poverty. That requires decisive measures, compliance with existing international agreements and the will to put global interests above the sometimes very narrowly formulated, national, economic or industrial interests.

Political group: PSE