RESOLUTION on the European Community's cooperation with the developing countries of Asia and Latin America

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs Focke on the European Community's relations with the developing countries of Asia and Latin America (Doc. B2-1390/87),

- having regard to its previous resolutions on the annual general guidelines concerning financial and technical aid to Latin American and Asian developing countries, and particularly its resolutions of 13 March 1987 (1) and 11 February 1988 (2),

(1) OJ No C 99, 13.4.1987, p. 216.

(2) OJ No C 68, 14.3.1988, p. 77.

- having regard to its resolution of 23 January 1987 on economic relations between the European Community and Latin America (3); having regard to the conclusions of the European Council of 26/27 June 1986, the conclusions of the Council of Representatives of the Member States' Governments of 22 June 1987 on relations between the EEC and Latin America, and the Commission's communication to the Council of 2 December 1986 on the European Community and Latin America.

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the opinion of the Committee on Budgets (Doc. A2-222/88).

A. whereas the Community's cooperation with Asian and Latin American countries was instituted at the initiative of the European Parliament,

B. whereas the criteria for cooperation with Latin America and Asia should in future reflect the economic, social, historical and cultural differences between the two regions, and whereas the two new cooperation schemes should take account of the differing levels of development of the various countries in each region,

C. whereas fundamental differences exist between the situation of the poorest 'non-associated' countries, which are mainly but not exclusively in Asia, and the middle-income developing countries predominantly but not only in South America, requiring quite distinct forms of cooperation,

D. whereas, without prejudice to increased cooperation with Asia, the accession of Spain and Portugal to the EEC will inevitably require the future strengthening of, and profound modifications in the Community's relationship with Latin America (as maintained in the Commission communication to the Council on economic, cultural and political relations and in the speech made in Parliament by the Commission representative on 23 January 1987),

E. whereas these links with Latin America, which should be strengthened, and the economie, particularly industrial, development of certain Latin American and Asian countries, call for far-reaching review of Community cooperation with the developing countries of Asia and Latin America.

1. Considers that financial and technical cooperation with non-associated developing countries is currently limited to measures which are often circumstantial, based on annual decisions and on an arbitrary system for the geographical distribution of loans, and considers that this practice makes management of the loans difficult and reduces their financial impact;

2. Takes the view that the nature of the Community's cooperation with the developing countries of Asia and Latin America should be differentiated and that a separate cooperation scheme should be set up for each of the two geographical areas;

3. Believes that it is therefore essential to define and implement an effective strategy of cooperation based on multiannual programmes answering the specific needs of these two regions of the world, which provide for a series of measures adapted to the different situations in the groups of countries in these continents and also adequately funded;

4. Is convinced that assistance in the field of industrial and trade cooperation is important for the developing countries, and that such cooperation must involve the encouragement of investment and the provision of credit and must, moreover, be directed towards the vital field of infrastructures and energy, which are prerequisites for the industrialization of these countries;

5. Welcomes the Commission's recent actions in the field of industrial cooperation, notably the signature of a Convention with Sofinasia and a Convention with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation aimed at stimulating direct private investment in Asia and Latin America, in particular through the setting up of joint ventures with small and medium-sized undertakings; sees this as a useful first step which must be followed by more active efforts to encourage industrialization in these countries;

6. Believes that industrial cooperation must include technical cooperation and assistance with training as well as the transfer of technology; believes that joint ventures are of considerable utility in this respect, as are applied research projects and programmes carried out jointly by European institutes and similar organizations in Latin American and Asian countries, calls for an intensification of such forms of cooperation;

7. Recognizes the vital importance of training in industrial, commercial, agricultural and energy cooperation, and, most importantly, in the field of new technologies; insists on the Comunity doing more in this respect, not only through technology and skills transfer but also through the provision of scholarships and places in Community training institutes, particularly for training in new technologies;

8. Stresses that Community cooperation should include technical and, where appropriate, financial assistance with the development of services, including production-related services such as the establishment of data-banks and the development of appropriate software, as well as services related to improving living standards, as the more an economy develops, the greater is the proportion of GDP accounted for by the tertiary sector;

9. Is convinced that industrial development should have the dual objective of meeting the countries' domestic requirements and increasing export revenues;

10. Supports the Economic and Social Committee's view that the list of countries benefiting from the GSP should not include those whose domestic product is greater than that of any of the EEC Member States, and stresses the need to comply with ILO international standards;

11. Hopes that the constant development of the generalized system of tariff preferences called for in recent year and its revision for the decade up to the year 2000 will be of especial benefit, at least for the competitive developing countries; at all events, considers in this connection that the list of countries benefiting from the GSP should exclude those gross domestic product exceeds that of any Community Member State;

12. Points out that the Community's common agricultural policy has had a particularly damaging effect on certain agricultural-exporting developing countries, with world cereal, beef and sugar prices being depressed as a result of the sale of Community and US surpluses on the world markets at prices that are highly subsidized through export refunds; calls on the Community to continue the reform of the CAP which has already been initiated through the reduction of subsidies and to work, in the current GATT negotiations, for liberalization of world, including Community, agricultural trade through the removal of import restrictions;

13. In view of the importance of commodity exports for many Latin American and Asian developing countries, calls on the Community institutions to do all that is possible in the relevant international fora to ensure more remunerative prices for commodities while at the same time further reducing tariff and non-tariff restrictions on commodity imports;

14. Calls on the Community to initiate an active policy of trade promotion for the Latin American and Asian developing countries through encouraging and assisting participation in trade fairs and through financing or co-financing studies in the form of market research, feasibility studies on the production of goods for export and technical studies; such assistance could be in the form of loans to be repaid wholly or partially when the results of the study begin to show a profit;

15. Urges the Community to endeavour to maintain the traditional flow of trade between Asia and those European countries with the strongest historical links with that region and between the Latin American and European countries, especially Portugal and Spain;

16. Calls urgently, in view of its concern at the consequences that completion of the internal market may have for industrial and trade relations with the Latin American and Asian countries, for a srudy to be drawn up on the possible effects of 1992;

17. Notes that the economic development of many Latin American countries is being undermined by their critical level of indebtedness; considers it vital that debt repayments must not stifle economic growth or the development of basic social services; calls on the Community and its Member States to use their good offices in international fora, notably the IMF and the World Bank, to ensure that Latin American debt repayments are rescheduled and readjusted so as not to preclude economic growth on which the ultimate reimbursement of these debts depends; Calls on the Community to consider the possibility of a programme similar to that being implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, to help resolve the debt problem of the poorest countries in Latin America and Asia;

18. Is convinced of the need to provide new credit for development to the developing countries of Asia and Latin America; while acknowledging the value of the recent Conventions with Sofinasta and the IFC maintains that much more needs to be done by the Community; takes the view that the Community needs a suitable financial instrument for the provision of credit to Latin American and Asian developing countries including co-financing with other lending agencies accordingly calls on the Commission to undertake a study of the feasibility and advisability of either expanding the scope of activities of the European Investment Bank or else establishing a Community Investment Bank to operate in Latin American and Asian developing countries, this study to be completed by the end of 1989;

19. Believes that private investment constitutes the most important source of finance for industrial and commercial development and for the development of services, particularly in the middle-income developing countries; accordingly requests the Community institutions to enter into mutually advantageous agreements with Asian and Latin American countries on the protection of investment and to help those governments to achieve a climate favourable to foreign investment;

20. Stresses the need for the Community to encourage regional cooperation in Asia and Latin America by providing both technical and financial assistance to regional bodies such as ASEAN, SAARC, the Cartagena Agreement (Andean Pact) and the Central American Group, as well as SELA, particularly welcomes the conclusion of cooperation agreements with regional groupings which should be the basis of much deeper cooperation in the future;

21. Proposes that scientific and technological cooperation with the countries of Latin America and Asia should permit participation in research programmes being carried out by the EEC, including high technology programmes;

22. Proposes the development of social and cultural cooperation by increasing contacts between professional, trade union, business, educational and cultural institutions; believes there is a need to set up an exchange programme for Asian and Latin American students and young people with their European counterparts;

23. Stresses the need for the EEC to take women into account in its cooperation programmes;

24. Emphasizes that financial and technical cooperation must, as laid down in the framework regulation (1), be strietly poverty-orientated so that it is the poorest countries, and the poorest sectors of the population that benefit; in effect this means providing financial and technical aid to the present Asian recipients, to the Central American countries with which the Community has an agreement, to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, if these are not signatory to the next ACP-EEC Convention, and to the poorest Andean Pact countries, as well as to other Latin American countries where large numbers of the population subsist in dire poverty;

(1) Council Regulation (EEC) No 422/81 OJ No L 48, 21.2.1981, p. 8.

25. Considers it particularly important for the Community fully to meet its obligations arising from the agreement with the Central American countries and the undertakings entered into at the San José meetings and to take account of the UN Agreement for the economic recovery of those countries;

26. Notes the Commission's statements regarding the difficulties currently encountered with some countries regarding the identification of good projects fot assistance under the financial and technical aid programme; points out that this is to be expected, given the poverty of many recipients and the inadequate nature of their administrative services; believes that it is particularly important to establish more Community delegations with development experts in Latin America and Asian countries so as to provide assistance with project and programme formulation and implementation;

27. Calls on the Community to play an active role in the encouragement of democracy and the development of democratic institutions in the developing countries of Latin America and Asia; in this regard, notes that the Community could provide certain assistance with the preparation of elections in the Central American countries while insisting on great care being taken to ensure that this could not be interpreted as outside interference in the free exercise of democratic rights;

28. Calls on the Commission to provide much greater assistance to the governments of Latin American and Asian countries with their efforts to suppress the production and traffic in narcotic drugs; points out, however, that only when profitable alternative crops and market outlets are available will there be an incentive for producers to cultivate and sell other commodities; calls, accordingly, on the Commission and Council to increase the funds in the Community budget earmarked for the campaign against drug abuse and to assist projects and programmes that would provide narcotic producers with economically viable alternative means of earning their living;

29. Recalls that the creation of separate budget headings in 1988 confirmed the will to develop the Community's cooperation with these countries along the lines of a differentiated political strategy;

30. Considers that until the Commission puts forward this political strategy, the presentation of the budget as it stands is an adequate basis for the continuity of financial and technical cooperation with non-associated countries;

31. With regard to Chapter 93, considers it consistent with the criteria set out in this resolution that the budget headings should be made separate and should cease to be in the form of annual proportional allocations based on geographical criteria; they should be allocated instead on the basis of the requirements which arise in the course of cooperation policy and the contractual obligations entered into by the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament;

32. Calls for financial and technical aid to be shared by Latin America and Asia in the proportion considered most appropriate to their permanent or additional needs and to the objectives being pursued, while fully accepting the principle of flexibility as regards the granting of the annual allocation, so as to provide for special needs that may arise from year to year;

33. With regard to the remaining lines in Chapter 93, covering trade cooperation, cooperation on energy, training, investment, refugees and displaced persons and Compex, proposes that for each of these programmes appropriations for Asia and Latin America be combined in the same article;

34. Insists that funding for all these programmes shall gradually but substantially be increased over the next five years;

35. Calls on the Commission and the Budgetary Authority to provide increased appropriations in the 1989 budget for the 'economic assistance' articles in Chapter 93 (lines other than financial and technical cooperation), so that these articles would account for some 30% of the total appropriations in this Chapter;

36. Considers it essential, both to facilitate a significant expansion in the sphere of application and in the projects, and to guarantee the effectiveness of the practical cooperation measures, for the Commission to make a real effort to step up recruitment of skilled staff at the various levels involved with relations with the countries of Latin America and Asia, notably the delegations established in these countries, whose number should be increased in accordance with a criterion which is based on expendience and which, rather than concerning itself strictly with expenditure, must take account above all of genuinely established needs;

37. Considers that it would in future be more appropriate and fruitful for the problems relating to Latin America and Asia to be discussed separately, especially within the European Parliament, so as to enable the differences and the types of aid to be placed in a context and appraised more effectively, as in the case of black Africa under the Lomé Convention;

38. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council of the European Communities and to the governments of the Asian and Latin American developing countries.