WRITTEN QUESTION E-2823/02 by Kathleen Van Brempt (PSE) to the Commission. Additional financial support for developing countries in implementing the Climate Convention.
Date: 2002-10-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, EU environmental policy, aid policy, climate change, developing countries, development aid, environmental cooperation, reduction of gas emissions

C 268 E/16

Official Journal of the European Union

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7.11.2003

EBA offers real opportunities for LDCs to increase exports to the Union, but work needs to be done to
ensure that
these opportunities are realized. This is why a comprehensive approach to trade and
development, as set out in the Commission Communication on Trade and Development (2) is required.

The quota of 74 185 tonnes for the first year of EBA (marketing year 2001/2002) was fully utilised. Seven
LDCs participated in the scheme, of which Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique and Burkina Faso all exported to
the Union for the first time. Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi already exported sugar to the Union in the
context of the Sugar Protocol and Special Preferential Sugar quantities but benefitted from increased overall
quantities. It is too early to say how the 2002/2003 quota will be used but the same countries, plus Nepal,
have applied to access it.

Questions of rules of origin and safeguard measures relating to EBA are addressed in the framework of the
Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) which will be reviewed in 2004 including specific safeguard and
monitoring provisions for EBA.

The issue of how developing countries, including the least developed, can benefit from increased market
access and trade can only be tackled in a comprehensive framework. The Commission approach to this
subject has just been set out in the Communication on Trade and Development, and is exemplified in the
approach of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
states.

The need for developing countries, LDCs in particular, to have more effective market access is fully
recognised in the Communication on Trade and Development. The Communication also sets out some of
the measures being taken to address non-tariff barriers (cid:1) which would include administrative barriers.
With regards to ACP LDCs, a central objective of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) mandate is
to simplify all requirements and procedures related to imports and exports, in particular with regard to
customs processes, import licensing, customs valuation, transit rules and pre-shipment inspection. Co-
operation will go far beyond administrative procedures. By extending ACP-Union co-operation to all areas
relevant to trade, EPAs will help to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries, LDC and non LDC, to deal
with these issues.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2820/98 of 21 December 1998 applying a multiannual scheme of generalised tariff

preferences for the period 1 July 1999 to 31 December 2001, OJ L 357 van 30.12.1998.

(2) COM(2002) 513 final.

(2003/C 268 E/018)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2823/02

by Kathleen Van Brempt (PSE) to the Commission

(8 October 2002)

Subject: Additional financial support for developing countries in implementing the Climate Convention

In its conclusions of 11 November 1999, the Development Council recognised that official development
aid from the EC has several comparative advantages, which could be used to support initiatives on climate
change and that this aid has a role to play in supporting the objectives of the Climate Convention and it
called on the Commission to consider this further.

Following the approval by the Conference of Parties to the Climate Convention of the Bonn Agreements,
the then Belgian Presidency of the Council, on behalf of the EC and its Members States as well as Canada,
New Zealand, Norway,
issued a political declaration on 23 July 2001 on
additional financial aid to developing countries for implementation of the Climate Convention. In that
declaration the EU and these like-minded countries together pledged to make additional resources of
EUR 450 million a year available by 2005 through various channels, in particular the Global Environment
Facility (GEF), through additional bilateral and multilateral aid, via financial contributions to the three new

Iceland and Switzerland,

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Official Journal of the European Union

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funds set up to implement the Bonn Agreements (Least Developed Countries Fund, Special Climate Change
Fund and the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund) and finally through the proceeds from the levy on CDM
projects introduced under the Kyoto Protocol.

At the CoP-8 conference in New Delhi, the EU will undoubtedly be challenged by the developing countries
on these promises. What measures has the Commission taken since Bonn to implement the Council’s
request of 11 November 1999 to make additional resources available within the framework of EU
development policy for support to the developing countries in implementing the Climate Convention?

(2003/C 268 E/019)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2826/02

by Kathleen Van Brempt (PSE) to the Commission

(8 October 2002)

Subject: Action programme to integrate climate change considerations into EU development policy

On 11 November 1999 the Commission was invited by the Development Cooperation Council to report
back to the Council on the progress made in integrating climate change considerations into EC economic
and development cooperation policies. This report was to include an action programme with targets,
timetables and indicators. The Council called on the Commission to submit its report as soon as possible
after the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention (CoP-6).

At its meeting of 10 November 2000 the Development Council confirmed that the Commission and
Member States should maximise the coordination and complementarity of climate relevant development
cooperation of the Community, the Member States, other development agencies and local actors. The
Council also said that the first aim is to create as many synergies between poverty reduction and climate
change activities as possible by supporting measures leading to win-win situations, and reiterated its call
on the Commission to submit a report,
in accordance with the Council conclusions of 11 November
1999, as soon as possible after CoP-6, for the Council’s further consideration.

During the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention (CoP-7) the
Council discussed preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development at its meeting of
8 November 2001 and again encouraged the Member States and the Community to strengthen the
integration of climate change into their development cooperation policies and to allocate appropriate
additional financial resources for this purpose. At the request of the Belgian delegation, Commissioner
Nielson informed the Council that the Commission ‘was currently working on the integration of the
various Community policies (cid:1) including development policy (cid:1) into an action programme on climate
change’.

We are now on the eve of CoP-8 in New Delhi and the Commission has still not submitted the action
programme specifically requested by the Council three years ago, for the integration of climate change
considerations into EU development policy to Parliament and the Council.

Can the Commission say why the action programme has failed to materialise and how this can be
reconciled with the political commitments entered into by the EU at the conferences of the parties to the
Climate Convention and at the recent World Summit in Johannesburg?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2823/02 and E-2826/02
given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(26 November 2002)

Since 1999, the Commission has been very active as regards the Climate Change issue. In particular, it has
kept a high profile in the negotiation process in partnership with successive Council Presidencies and with
the Member States. The most prominent result is the recent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the
Community. Many implementing activities have been launched and are on-going in the context of both
internal and external policies.