Summary: July 24, 2000: Statement by H.E. Mr. Jean-David Levitte, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations. Intergovernmental preparatory committee for the third conference on the LDCs (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honor of speaking on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and the other associated countries (Cyprus, Malta) align themselves with this statement.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union congratulates you. It is pleased to see one of its own members in such a prominent position. It wishes you and your officers every success.
The European Union thanks the eminent speakers for their earlier speeches, especially Mr. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Ms Tibaijuka, Executive Secretary of this Conference, H.E. Mr. Mbanefo, Ambassador of Nigeria, President of G77, and H.E. Mr. Chowdhury, Ambassador of Bangladesh, Coordinator of the LDCs, who have provided the best possible introduction to our proceedings.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union is pleased to be able to host the Third Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels from 14 to 20 May 2001. That important event will provide a unique opportunity to tailor the activities of the international community to the expectations and needs of the LDCs and to encourage the LDCs to adapt and analyze the internal requirements for their development.
By chance, the cycle of Presidencies of the European Union has resulted in us holding this first meeting of the Preparatory Committee under the French Presidency. As you know, the first two Conferences on the LDCs were held in Paris. Furthermore, the LDCs have long been at the heart of European political priorities. Along with all the Member States, we therefore intend to ensure the success of the future Conference. We want it to lead to real improvements in the situation of the 650 million or
so people who make up the population of the LDCs today. In 1998 the European Union granted the LDCs USD 6.6 billion out of the total of USD 10.5 billion allocated by the member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee. The European Union alone thus provides two-thirds of the aid granted to the LDCs.
1. The European Union considers that the Conference's main aim should be to eradicate poverty. The number of LDCs has grown substantially since that category of countries was first created, rising from 25 to a current level of 48. Halving world poverty by 2015 continues to be one of the international community's primary overall objectives, as agreed in Geneva last month at Copenhagen + 5.
Economic growth, sustainable development and integration into international trade flows are vital if poverty is to be eradicated within the framework of targeted national policies.
In order to focus our discussions and enable specific and realistic results to be obtained at the end of the Conference, it would undoubtedly be useful to identify a limited number of additional objectives.
2. The United Nations Conference on the LDCs has a very special feature compared with the major UN conferences and their follow-up: it is the only Conference directed at a particular category of country, the LDCs. As they themselves are responsible for their own development process, the LDCs must play a key role in that Conference.
These countries have certain problems in common. Being an LDC means being affected by a whole range of poverty-related factors, in particular a lack of basic educational, sanitary and social infrastructures and an extreme vulnerability to natural phenomena (ecological disasters, the problem of desertification, etc.). All these factors place the LDCs in a generally unfavorable position in terms of human development, as shown by the classification drawn up each year by the UNDP in its World
Report on Human Development. Moreover, AIDS and other infectious diseases have a considerable impact on the populations of the LDCs a fact which we must address.
The LDCs also suffer from low production capacity and marginalisation in trade flows and international private capital flows (direct investment), and they lag far behind in terms of access to new technologies. As Ambassador Chowdhury rightly stressed, such a situation is particularly worrying in the context of heavy indebtedness because unless the entire international community takes action it risks leaving the LDCs on the scrap heap of globalization.
However, we also know as several examples testify that the Least Developed Countries, with the support of the international community, have the means to free themselves from their situation to take advantage of the positive effects of growth and incorporate themselves fully into international flows. It therefore seems essential to create an environment which favors development. Good governance (i.e. the sound management of public affairs by transparent and accountable national institutions),
the strengthening of the rule of law and the involvement of citizens in decisions which affect them all provide a vital preliminary framework for ensuring that the resources allocated to development are used properly and efficiently. Peace and a resolute desire to avoid conflicts are also essential.
It is also extremely important to establish the dynamics of growth at regional level, and that is why, by adopting specific measures, the European Union is actively supporting the various regional economic integration initiatives which have already helped to foster economic growth and create synergy between neighboring States. The European Union is pleased that this regional dimension has formed an important part of the Cotonou agreements recently concluded between the European Union and the
ACP countries.
Finally, we must not forget that the LDCs constitute a category of countries facing a wide variety of situations. This is why a more individual, tailored approach is being proposed along with the general measures. We need to listen to what the LDCs have to say in order to better adapt the programs which will be defined jointly, with them and for them.
This Conference will provide us with an excellent opportunity to examine the impact on individual countries of development aid coordination initiatives such as the World Bank's Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF), the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) of the World Bank and the IMF and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which aim to mobilize parties and resources within a national framework for which individual States will bear sole responsibility.
3. In that connection, we note with interest the innovative proposals submitted by the UNCTAD Secretariat concerning the structure of the Conference. The organization of interactive and round-table discussions should enable the LDCs to play a central role in both evaluating previous action programs and devising future policies for implementation. As far as the European Union is concerned, this will be one of the keys to the success of the May 2001 Conference.
The success of this innovative arrangement will depend partly on our ability to ensure effective coordination between these meetings and the Plenary Committee, which will discuss and endorse the conclusions thus reached. It will also depend on the LDCs' effective representation at and participation in those various meetings, which will provide a forum for open and "reactive" discussions.
This last aspect will have to scrutinized particularly carefully with regard to "parallel events" at which civil society and the business communities of the LDCs may be able to make a very useful contribution. We consider it essential to create the best possible conditions in order to encourage the involvement of civil society in the discussions which we are proposing to conduct at the Conference.
Finally, it is important to us that the Conference should lead to the adoption of a concise and operative final act, and we trust that the national and international mechanisms for following up the global action programme (in terms of methods, performance indicators and technical indicators) will also be of a highly operational kind. Their content will have to be precisely defined, and they will have to set appropriate deadlines.
Mr. Chairman,
4. With this in mind, the European Union hopes that, at this first Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee meeting, the organization and proceedings of the Committee and the quality of the final document will together make an effective contribution towards achieving the objectives set. As we embark on our work, we undertake to participate as constructively as possible in the joint discussions.
The European Commission will provide substantial logistical support to the organization of the Conference, as it announced in its speech on Friday morning.
The European Union takes great interest in the Least Developed Countries, and that interest is by no means new. Under its development assistance policy, a substantial proportion of its funding is allocated to supporting the LDCs.
As well as the Member States' bilateral development assistance policies, the European Community's commitment to the LDCs has found tangible expression since 1975 in the successive Lomé Conventions, and will continue to manifest itself in future through the Cotonou agreements recently negotiated with the ACP countries.
Those agreements, which were concluded in February 2000 after eighteen months of negotiations, propose an in-depth reform of the links between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union. With a view to "eradicating poverty" the primary objective of those agreements provision is made for a significant improvement in cooperation practices and instruments: updating compensation instruments, increasing the Decentralisation of cooperation by strengthening the role of local
representatives in the ACP countries and encouraging the involvement of civil society. Finally, within the framework of a contractual partnership policy, the ACP countries have undertaken to continue to work towards good governance, political stability and internal security. Fresh impetus will also be given to trade cooperation between the European Union and the ACP countries in the years to come.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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