Mr President, fortunately we do not have the same problem with Argentina that we have with Russia or China. I am happy to say that Argentina has put its military past behind it. It is now a democracy – to be taken with a pinch of salt, perhaps, but a democracy. That is why as rapporteur I would also like to recommend that we include the democratic aspect in this scientific and technological cooperation, by which I mean that Members of Parliament from Argentina and also from the European Union should discuss research and science topics and perhaps point the way to the future. In recent years, Argentina has made efforts to increase public expenditure on research and technology, but it remains at a relatively low level. 0.5% of GDP is spent on research. That is far too little, even if, within Latin America, it is still one of the top-spending countries. But that is no way to approach the twenty-first century. Cooperation between Argentina and the European Union is therefore also a way of encouraging Argentina and other Latin American countries to increase the amount they spend on investing in future. It is no secret that Latin America’s share of world trade – and thus Argentina’s share – has fallen significantly over the last 20 years. This is associated with a lack of investment in the future. We are witnessing a flight, not only of capital, but also of people educated either in these countries or in Europe or in the USA, who have left their country and sought work elsewhere. In this respect – let me repeat this – cooperation with Europe is a form of encouragement to take the same approach as we do, that is to invest in the future. Nevertheless, the funds involved are meagre. In my report you will see a summary, provided by the Commission, which indicates that Argentina received EUR 18 million under the fourth framework programme of research. This consisted of nothing but small, yet very interesting programmes. EUR 18 million is not a lot! If you have that sort of money available, then you have to try to use it to attract larger sums. I would like to encourage the Commission to consider using these modest sums to encourage private companies to invest more in research in Argentina, and, once again, in other Latin American countries also. I have a figure in front of me which I find encouraging – and it ought to be extrapolated to the whole European Union: Germany’s chemical industry spends DM 12.3 billion a year on research and development, added to which there is DM 5 billion for research abroad, generally in the USA in practice, but also in countries in Latin America and elsewhere, and you will see that there are more and more investors in the research sector. If you extrapolate that, European industry as a whole may be investing DM 20 billion or EUR 10 billion in research activities outside the European Union, and if the funds the European Union is making available here could be used to attract private research funding also, that would be a benefit, and would mean that countries like Argentina would not be just tantamount to extensions of Europe’s workshops, but could also participate in research and development themselves. I would like to encourage the Commission to adopt that approach. The committee for which I am rapporteur will approve that. In addition, just as with China, I would like to remind you that research with these countries – with Argentina and other countries – is a two-way street. We benefit from it too. Given that this year is the two-hundredth anniversary of Alexander von Humboldt’s journey to Venezuela, I would like to recall that Alexander von Humboldt did not just take something out there – his curiosity – but he also brought something back, namely knowledge about tropical plants and about the geography of this interesting continent. On that note, I also hope that research cooperation with Argentina and other countries will benefit the people of Europe, the European Union.

Political group: PSE