Home (EN) > In Parliament > Resolutions & Reports

• May 2009 - Resolution on gender mainstreaming in EU external relations and peace-building/nation-building
• March 2009 - Resolution on MDG Contracts
• March 2009 - Resolution on EC Development assistance to health services in Sub-Saharan Africa
• February 2009 - Resolution on a Special Place for Children in EU External Action
• January 2009 - Resolution on the Situation of Fundamental Rights in the European Union
• May 2008- Van Hecke report on Aid Effectiveness
• March 2008 Approval of Uca/Cretu report on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development
• November 2007- The European Union and Humanitarian Aid
• October 2007- State of play of EU-Africa relations
• July 2007- EP Resolution on the democratic scrutiny of the implementation of the financing instrument for development cooperation (DCI)
• June 2007- EP Resolution on the Millennium Development Goals - the midway point
• February 2007 - EP Resolution on Budget Aid for Developing Countries
• November 2006- EP Resolution on AIDS
• June 2006 - EP Resolution on the situation of women in armed conflicts and their role in the reconstruction and democratic process in post-conflict countries
• April 2006- EP Resolution on World Health Day
• February 2006- EP Resolution on combating violence against women
• January 2006- EP Resolution on disability and development

On 7 May, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on gender mainstreaming in EU external relations and peace-building/nation-building. The full text of the resolution can be accessed at the following location: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2009-0372&language=EN

On 24 March, the EP adopted a resolution on the MDG contracts. The resolution calls on the EC to maintain high levels of budget support to developing countries, and to ensure that substantial amounts of this is targeted at the health and educations sectors. The EC is urged to link budget support to MDG targets, notably gender equality and universal access to sexual. For the text of the resolution: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2009-0152&language=EN&ring=A6-2009-0085

 

On 12 March 2009, the European Parliament adopted by 555 votes to 8, with 11 abstentions a resolution on "EC development assistance to health services in sub-Saharan Africa", following the European Court of Auditors Special Report on this subject published on 14 January. The motion was initiated by Mr Josep Borrell Fontelles MEP on behalf of the Committee on Development. The resolution stresses the need for the EC to increase support and funding for health services in Sub-Saharan Africa and, recalls the importance of strengthening health systems ad well as increasing the number of staff specialised in health issues in EC Delegations. The resolution also asks the Commission for a better monitoring of budget support and the use of performance indicators and targets in order to strengthen health systems and support basic needs in health. The resolution is available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2009-0138+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

On 19 February 2008, the European Parliament adopted by 544 votes to 59, with 42 abstentions, a resolution on a special place for children in EU external action. The resolution notes that despite recent positive developments, the EU resources devoted to children's rights remain inadequate whereas violations to children’s rights are still common throughout the world. The text calls on the EU, in its external action, to pay specific attention to the situation of children and to systematically include children’s rights in its political dialogue with partner countries. The resolution stresses that the EU should strongly encourage third-country governments to comply with international children's rights standards, such as basic social welfare services, and the right to education, especially for girl children. The Commission and the Member States are invited to promote policy coherence on children's issues and to incorporate consideration of children's rights into other major policies areas such as security, climate change, migration and aid effectiveness. The resolution can be accessed at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2009-0060&language=EN&ring=A6-2009-0039

On 14 January, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the Situation of Fundamental Rights in the European Union 2004-2008.  The resolution identifies a series of gaps in ensuring the protection of fundamental rights in the EU and invites the Council, the Commission and the EU Member States to act in a series of fields such as anti-discrimination, the protection of minorities, equal opportunities, sexual orientation, xenophobia and children’s rights.

The text of the resolution can be found at the following location: <cite>www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2009-0019+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN</cite>

The Van Hecke Aid report on ‘the Follow-up to the Paris Declaration of 2005 on Aid Effectiveness’ will be voted on this Thursday the 22^nd of May in the morning session in Strasbourg plenary.

The EPWG secretariat worked on this report together with some of its Members and NGOs and considers it to be particularly strong on ownership, civil society participation, parliamentary scrutiny, gender and the MDGs and the one lagging most behind (MDG5). Therefore we would advise you to vote in favour of this report on Thursday.

For the Van Hecke report, click here

For a concise EPWG briefing on Aid Effectiveness, how it affects reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, and what you as MEP can do to influence the process, click here

The European Parliament Development Committee has approved, on the 29 January 2008, a report on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development.  Several MEPs with help from NGO’s drafted numerous amendments to include issues related to SRHR, such as sexuality education, reproductive health services and supplies and HIV/AIDS. All these amendments-excepting one- have been adopted. At the same time, all the amendments following a contrary line have been rejected.

The report was approved in the Plenary Session on 13 March, with 347 favorable votes, 136 against and 44 abstensions.

To have a direct access to the amendments click here.

 

European Parliament resolution of 14 November 2007 on a European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid (2007/2139(INI)), rapporteur Mr. Cornillet MEP

For the text of the resolution, click here

Most important section for the EPWG:

19.  Considers that the EU should invest more in understanding and monitoring the vulnerability factors of the population; calls in particular on the EU to ensure that in all humanitarian operations emergency health needs are met, in particular as regards reproductive health, in line with the respective SPHERE standards;

European Parliament resolution of 25 October 2007 on the state of play of EU-Africa relations (2007/2002(INI))

For the text of the Resolution, click here.

Most important section for the EPWG on Investing in People:

71.  Notes that Africa's priority in any partnership is focused on the socio-economic development of its people;

72.  Recalls that development targets will not be achieved if gender equality and women's rights are not upheld; notes that the EU has reiterated in key policy documents its commitment towards gender equality and that the AU itself has made far-reaching commitments in this field, which should form the basis of the partnership; therefore stresses that the joint strategy should contribute to gender mainstreaming and to the implementation of specific and concrete actions aimed at the empowerment of women;

73.  Recalls that health is one of the most important drivers of economic development and that child mortality rates in particular are a powerful indicator of poverty; therefore stresses the importance of protecting children against disease, in particular those diseases that can be prevented by new and underused vaccines;

74.  Stresses the importance of protecting the girl child and of raising awareness of early marriage, rape, sexual harassment in schools, and the vulnerability of girls to HIV/AIDS;

75.  Stresses that the current international commitments to education and health for all need to be expressly integrated in the joint strategy; notes that health and education should be at the core of any pro-poor development strategy and that special attention should be paid to access to services, especially for women, children, vulnerable groups and persons with disabilities ;

76.  Considers that weak health systems, including the human resources crisis, are a major barrier to the achievement of the health MDGs, and stresses that strengthening health systems should be an essential element of the joint strategy, including the recognition of the important role that non-state health care providers, such as community-based organisations, play in supporting the delivery of health services, in particular in difficult to reach areas and among the most marginalised and vulnerable populations;

77.  Notes that 63% of all people in the world infected with HIV live in Africa, and that in a number of African countries average life expectancy is falling dramatically as a result of the AIDS pandemic; stresses therefore that universal access to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria services, in particular universal access to means of prevention, treatment, care and support, in Africa should be included in the joint strategy as these diseases have a massive impact on Africa's economic and social development;

78.  Stresses that women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and pregnancy-related complications resulting in high maternal and neonatal mortality; calls therefore for the inclusion of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in the joint strategy in line with the abovementioned Maputo Plan of Action for the Operationalisation of the Continental Policy Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 2007-2010;

79.  Notes that counterfeiting of medicinal products in Africa (which mainly concerns fatal conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids) is a growing scourge, threatening the lives of millions of people; encourages the EU and the countries concerned to take action (in particular legal and penal measures) to combat that scourge;

80.  Stresses that special attention should be paid to vulnerable populations, such as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees; stresses therefore that health services, including services concerning reproductive health and supplies should be granted also during humanitarian crises;

81.  Stresses the importance of giving greater support to NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) as the main African initiative for sustainable development;

82.  Insists that agriculture and food security should be of the utmost importance in the joint strategy, and stresses that the EU policies, including subsidy policy, must not harm Africa's agricultural sector or jeopardise food security; therefore calls for the strategy to support the increased competitiveness and productivity of the African agricultural sector, also in the context of the Doha Development Round; further urges the EU to offer financial support to the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Programme', adopted by the AU and NEPAD;

83.  Underlines, also in relation to the worrying and worsening phenomenon of desertification, the need to support sustainable agricultural methods; recalls, in this regard, that for growth to have a poverty reducing effect, it needs to be broad-based, small-holder oriented and result in greater labour opportunities;

84.  Insists that the issue of desertification and access to water for all should be of the utmost importance in the joint strategy; expresses particular concern at the multiple negative implications of desertification on, among others, food security, migration, refugees and IDPs;

85.  Points out that Africa is the continent predicted to suffer the effects of climate change most severely; therefore urges the EU, the AU and their Member States, as well as investors and business actors, to acknowledge their responsibility for climate change, and calls on them to develop an environment friendly development strategy in order to reverse the situation, including a financial framework for environmental adaptation; further calls on the EU to offer financial support to the Action Plan for the Environment Initiative of NEPAD and its operational decisions adopted by the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) in Brazzaville, Congo, in 2006, and endorsed by the Eighth AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2007;

86.  Welcomes the Commission's initiative to launch an EU-Africa partnership on climate change and to launch a Global Climate Change Alliance; in this context stresses that the EU must make significant funding available for adaptation measures in African countries; stresses also that adaptation must not be dealt with only as a humanitarian issue; emphasises that risk reduction and "climate proofing" measures must be integrated into the overarching development agenda, including in poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) and CSPs;

87.  Calls for the joint strategy to address the root causes of migration and to pay particular attention to the rights and the integration of migrants and to the issue of brain drain, particularly in the health sector, by proposing practical solutions to successful circular migration; stresses that limiting migration to the EU should not be considered as either a condition for aid or as a development strategy;

88.  Considers that culture is a key factor for intercultural dialogue and inter-religious understanding, for a feeling of national and regional identity, for a strong social basis and as a secure grounding for solidarity within and between peoples, and that therefore a sustainable development agenda must include culture;

89.  Considers that, since in a number of African countries debt is still a heavy burden counteracting any development effort, debt relief should be considered on a case-by-case basis and should be conditional on strengthened governance and economic policies, on debt management and in particular on ensuring that debts are not systematically renewed by other lenders;

90.  Acknowledges the usefulness and the relevance of budget support, which in particular enables basic social services to be improved whilst, at the same time, helping to strengthen the structure of African countries; calls, however, for caution in relation to the disbursement of aid in the form of budget support; insists that budget support be treated separately for each country, depending on its particular situation and that it is not appropriate for fragile States or countries in conflict; calls for the establishment of indicators for human and social development, for gender budgeting and for education and health; in this respect, encourages the Commission to continue drawing up its proposed "MDG contract" with the intended beneficiaries of budget support; insists that budget support must be accompanied by the strengthening of the capacity of parliaments, national courts of auditors, local authorities and civil society to scrutinise the process, so as to avoid basic social services becoming under-resourced; proposes that budget support should not replace support to certain key development sectors such as education and health or sectors that risk being marginalised by recipient governments;

91.  Stresses that sustainable development is only possible if it represents development for all, including women and minority and/or vulnerable groups;

92.  Stresses the importance of EU support to strategies aimed at empowering women, including through support to microcredit, as well as to sexual and reproductive health programmes, which are crucial in the fight against HIV/AIDS;

See below or click here for online resolution

The European Parliament,

-  having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.   whereas Parliament has launched a process of democratic scrutiny of the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1905/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation(1) (DCI),

B.   whereas, according to Article 2(1) of the DCI, the overarching objective of cooperation under that instrument shall be "the eradication of poverty in partner countries", including "pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals"(MDGs),

C.   whereas Parliament adopted three resolutions(2) pursuant to Rule 81 of its Rules of Procedure, signalling to the Commission that in Parliament's view it had exceeded its implementing powers in a number of draft Commission decisions establishing strategy papers,

D.   whereas the conclusions of Parliament's scrutiny of the Commission's draft country, regional and thematic strategy papers were sent to the Commission in the form of a cover letter(3) , highlighting Parliament's main horizontal concerns and with more than 150 pages summarising Parliament's assessment of the individual strategy papers and requesting the Commission to supply specific information on individual cases,

E.   whereas the Commission's reply was received in the form of a letter of 26 March 2007 from Commissioners Ferrero-Waldner and Michel to the Committee on Development, to be considered as a "consolidated response to both [Ö] the letter and the resolution"(4) ,

F.   whereas the Commissioners state that the MDGs cannot be achieved by a focus on basic services alone, at the same time reaffirming their commitment to achieving the objective of 20% of assistance under DCI country programmes being allocated by 2009 to basic and secondary education and basic health,

G.   whereas the Commission further affirms that cooperation in the field of higher education will in itself contribute to forming a national professional cadre capable of managing and generating the necessary policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development,

H.   whereas the Commission states that it is considering how to improve the process of consultation with the different stakeholders and points out that in the drawing up of the annual action programmes a gender impact assessment will be made of the measures proposed when relevant,

I.   whereas mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues ñ promotion of human rights, gender equality, democracy, good governance, the rights of the child, of disabled people and of indigenous people, environmental sustainability and combating HIV/AIDS ñ must be undertaken in all programmes,

J.   whereas Article 25(1)b of the DCI states that the financing may take the form of budget support "if the partner country's management of public spending is sufficiently transparent", and that the Commission shall "support efforts of partner countries to develop parliamentary control and audit capacities",

1.  Appreciates the letter of 26 March 2007 from Commissioners Ferrero-Waldner and Michel to the Committee on Development but regrets that it does not give a concrete response to the specific questions raised in Parliament's own letter and that so far no response has been received to the specific questions contained in Parliament's conclusions on individual strategy papers;

2.  Urges the Commission to pursue poverty eradication and the achievement of the MDGs, in particular by a strong focus on basic health and basic education; stresses that, for countries where these are not included as focal sectors, the Commission must provide detailed information on other donors" activities, showing how the partner country is on its way to achieving the MDGs by 2015;

3.  Regrets that the country strategy papers do not allocate a sufficient part of the resources to the DCI's overarching goal of poverty eradication and the achievement of the MDGs; regrets in particular that it is totally unclear how the EU will reach the "benchmark of 20% of its allocated assistance under country programmes covered by the DCI [to] be dedicated to basic and secondary education and basic health" by 2009; urges the Commission to indicate in detail how it is honouring this commitment and whether in this respect instructions have been issued to desk officers and delegations and a specific statistical basis established;

4.  Recognises the importance of certain non-development activities such as enhancing the EU's visibility abroad, and aspects of higher education, regional integration, trade and civil aviation, as they can have positive effects on relations between the EU and its partner countries, but recalls that the DCI is a specific instrument for development with a legal requirement for all funding under its geographical programmes and at least 90% of the funding under its thematic programmes to be eligible as Official Development Assistance (ODA) according to the criteria of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; notes that non-ODA activities should be financed from other sources;

5.  Calls on the Commission to provide detailed information on the MDG impact of all activities planned under the DCI; requests the Commission to indicate, in order of priority, which criteria it used for the allocation of funds between the DCI geographical programmes, as well as the criteria for establishing strategy papers for some countries and regions and not for others;

6.  Values and supports the Commission's efforts on division of labour and donor coordination, but notes the need for an overall view of all donors" activities and therefore calls on the Commission to provide Parliament with a detailed and up-to-date "donor matrix" for each country and region;

7.  Requests the Commission to inform Parliament of how it is planning to ensure proper and effective consultation with all stakeholders at all stages of the programming process, in particular when it intends to introduce new activities;

8.  Regrets that cross-cutting issues are not clearly mainstreamed in the strategy papers and indicative programmes and therefore urges the Commission to include them in a truly horizontal way in its annual action programmes and to provide clear mainstreaming benchmarks and/or impact indicators on the planned activities;

9.  Urges the Commission strictly to apply the eligibility criteria for budget support, particularly refraining from such actions in countries where transparency in public spending cannot be assured; requests the Commission also to provide supplementary information to Parliament, particularly on how, in all countries benefiting from budget support, it is implementing the legal requirement under Article 25(1)(b) of the DCI to "support efforts of partner countries to develop parliamentary control and audit capacities";

10.  Calls on the Commission to send Parliament all information on the geographic and thematic programmes, along with the full list of the members of the DCI committee; requests the Commission to forward systematically and immediately to the members of the DCI committee all the conclusions of Parliament's scrutiny in their full versions;

11.  Expects the Commission to address Parliament's concerns, expressed in the conclusions of its scrutiny of the Strategy Papers, and to fully implement Parliament's recommendations and requests in the annual action plans;

12.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Governments and Parliaments of the Member States and the members of the DCI committee.

See below or click here for online resolution

The European Parliament ,

-   having regard to the Millennium Declaration of 8 September 2000, which sets out the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as criteria established collectively by the international community for the elimination of poverty,

-   having regard to the successive Human Development Reports drawn up by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),

-   having regard to its resolution of 12 April 2005 on the role of the European Union in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),

-   having regard to the Rome Declaration on Harmonisation, adopted on 25 February 2003 following the High Level Forum on Harmonisation, and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, adopted on 2 March 2005 following the High Level Forum on Implementation, Alignment and Results (the 'Paris Declaration'),

-   having regard to the Joint Statement by the Council and the representatives of Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission on European Union Development Policy: 'The European Consensus' (the 'European Consensus for Development') signed on 20 December 2005,

-   having regard to the Commission Communication entitled 'EU Strategy for Africa: Towards a Euro-African pact to accelerate Africa's development' (COM(2005)0489),

-   having regard to its resolution of 17 November 2005 on a development strategy for Africa,

-   having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1905/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation (the 'Development Cooperation Instrument' (DCI)),

-   having regard to the annual reports by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration, the latest of which dates from July 2006,

-   having regard to the report by the UN Millennium Project Task Force headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs entitled "Investing in Development: a practical plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goals",

-   having regard to the Report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) entitled 'The Least Developed Countries ñ Report 2002 ñ Escaping the Poverty Trap,

-   having regard to UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children reports and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

-   having regard to the Commission Staff Working Paper entitled "EC Report on Millennium Development Goals 2000ñ2004" (SEC(2004)1379),

-   having regard to the annual Global Monitoring Report on MDGs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the latest of which was published in April 2007,

-   having regard to the Development Co-operation Report 2006 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the latest version of which was published in March 2007,

-   having regard to the final declarations and conclusions of international conferences, in particular the International Conference on Financing for Development (Monterrey, 2002), the 2005 World Summit (New York, 2005), the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002), the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) (Brussels, 2001), the Fourth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (Doha, 2001), the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (Cairo, 1994), the UN General Assembly's 1999 special session to review progress towards meeting the ICPD goals ("Cairo + 5"), and the World Education Forum (Dakar, 2000),

-   having regard to the national reservations expressed by EU Member States in the final declarations and conclusions of the above-mentioned conferences,

-   having regard to the commitments made by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002 in advance of the Monterrey Conference,

-   having regard to the commitments on aid volume, aid to Sub-Saharan Africa, and aid quality made by the G8 at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit,

-   having regard to the Fourth Assessment Report of Working Group II to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change entitled 'Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability' ( the "Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change"),

-   having regard to the final report of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change,

-   having regard to the conclusions of UNDP, the UN Millennium Project and the World Bank in their 2006 report on Energy and the Millennium Development Goals,

-   having regard to Articles 177-181 of the Treaty establishing the European Community,

-   having regard to the Commission Communication entitled EU Aid: 'Delivering more, better and faster' (COM(2006)0087),

-   having regard to the Commission Communication entitled 'Increasing the impact of EU aid: a common framework for drafting country strategy papers and joint multiannual programming' (COM(2006)0088),

-   having regard to the Commission Communication entitled 'Accelerating progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals ñ Financing for Development and Aid Effectiveness' (COM(2005)0133),

-   having regard to the conclusions of the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) meeting of 10 and 11 April 2006 on financing for development and European aid effectiveness,

-   having regard to the Commission Communication entitled 'EU Code of Conduct on Division of Labour in Development Cooperation' (COM(2007)0072),

-   having regard to its resolution of 6 April 2006 on aid effectiveness and corruption in developing countries,

-   having regard to its resolution of 15 February 2007 on budget aid for developing countries,

-   having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-   having regard to the report of the Committee on Development (A6-0220/2007),

A.   whereas the year 2007 marks the mid-point to meeting the MDGs in 2015 and therefore offers a unique opportunity to take stock of what remains to be done,

B.   whereas in Sub-Saharan Africa many countries are not on track to meet any of the MDGs, and also in many middle-income countries there are regions and ethnic groups made up of millions of people who are making unsatisfactory progress,

C.   whereas the European Council, with reference to the agenda for the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, agreed in May 2005 that 0,7 % of Gross National Income (GNI) would be donated as Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2015 and that this increase in aid was a fundamental prerequisite for the achievement of the MDGs,

D.   whereas the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) allows for debt relief to be counted towards donor countries' ODA contributions even though it does not represent a transfer of any new resources from donor to recipient countries,

E.   whereas debt relief is one of the targets of MDG 8, which aims specifically to 'deal comprehensively with developing countries" debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term',

F.   whereas 24 countries have now benefited from debt cancellation, including 18 in Africa, but more much debt cancellation is still needed,

G.   whereas annually EUR 6.9bn of ODA is required if the MDG on basic education is to be achieved and whereas the current global ODA for basic education is around EUR 1.6bn ñ of which the EU contributes EUR 0.8bn,

H.   whereas the estimated financing needed to meet the health MDGs is EUR 21bn per year, and current financing meets only 36 % of this need, and whereas even with an anticipated increase in EU ODA by 2010, the available funds will cover only 41 % of the required EUR 21 billion ñ leaving a financing gap of EUR 11.9 billion per year,

I.   whereas despite significant progress towards universal primary education in recent years, there are still some 77 million primary school age children currently not in school, and the target of correcting the gender imbalance in primary schools by 2005 has been missed,

J.  Whereas child labour denies children the right to education, which is an essential instrument for future generations to escape poverty,

K.   whereas the three health MDGs, those on infant mortality, on maternal mortality and on the fight against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria are among the least likely to be achieved by 2015,

L.   whereas, according to the 2006 UN Report on the MDGs, despite progress in some countries the rate of HIV/AIDS infection is continuing to increase, with the number of people infected rising from 36.2 million in 2003 to 38.6 million in 2005 (half of whom are women), and whereas the number of deaths attributable to AIDS also rose in 2005, despite improved access to antiretroviral therapies,

M.   whereas at present over 90 % of health research funding is spent on diseases that affect just ten per cent of the world's population and whereas patent systems may have been working as an incentive for R&D in developed countries, this has not been the case for neglected diseases affecting the poor,

N.   whereas, according to some estimates, there is a shortage of some two million teachers and over four million health workers in developing countries and in most cases, there are no strategies in place for training and recruitment,

O.  Whereas the right to food is essential to enable all other human rights to be exercised and its fulfilment is a prerequisite for the achievement of the entire range of the MDGs; and according to the 2006 UN report on the MDGs, progress to reduce hunger has been too slow and numbers have even been increasing in the last few years and, as a result, 854 million people (17 % of the global population) go hungry every day and almost 16,000 children die every day from hunger-related causes,

P.   whereas progress towards tackling malnutrition is alarmingly slow and 27 % of children are malnourished and 53 % of deaths among children under five are associated with malnutrition,

Q.   whereas according to UNDP, at least 19 countries have completed MDG needs assessments, and another 55 are in the process of drawing them up, but to date not a single low income country in Africa is implementing such strategies,

R.   whereas the baseline survey for monitoring the Paris Declaration which was undertaken in 2006 found disappointing results relating to the implementation of pledges on harmonisation, alignment and ownership,

S.   whereas the EU, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and Germany are increasing the proportion of aid spent through general budget support,

T.   whereas the quality of development aid is as important as its quantity, taking into account the absorption capacity of the countries concerned,

U.   whereas progress towards achieving the MDGs requires radical action to address the structural causes of poverty, including the need for a fair and equitable rules-based trade systems designed to promote trade and to correct the imbalances in global trade, especially where Africa is concerned,

V.   whereas Parliament in its resolution of 6 July 2006 on Fair Trade and Development recognised the role of fair trade in improving the livelihoods of small farmers and producers in the developing world, providing as it does a sustainable production model with guaranteed returns for the producer,

W.   whereas increased support to the private sector, in particular to small and medium-sized enterprises, is a driving force for the development and creation of new markets, as well as for the creation of jobs,

X.   whereas the achievement of the MDGs is an EU priority and whereas the crucial role of local authorities in their implementation has been recognised by the UN,

Y.   whereas an estimated two billion people in the world lack access to modern energy carriers and whereas no country has been able to substantially reduce poverty without significantly increasing its use of energy;

Z.   whereas the above-mentioned Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and the Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change demonstrated unequivocally that climate change has the greatest impact on developing countries and that for many of the world's most vulnerable communities, climate change is already a reality,

AA.   whereas the preliminary estimates of the World Bank indicate that USD 10ñ40 billion will be required annually in order to "climate-proof" development in the poorest countries; and whereas contributions to adaptation funds within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change do not amount to more than USD 150ñ300 million per year,

AB.   whereas conflict-affected fragile States account for only 9 % of the population of the developing countries, but that 27 % of the extreme poor, nearly one third of all child deaths and 29 % of 12 year olds who did not complete primary school in 2005, are to be found in fragile States,

AC.   whereas good governance and improved institutional capacity are vital to ensuring the delivery of basic social services and infrastructure and security to citizens,

AD.   whereas the achievement of the MDGs would not only mean a giant step in reducing global poverty and suffering, but would also serve to demonstrate the international community's ability to set and follow through practical targets for global partnership,

Scaling up aid

1.  Emphasises that the over-arching aim of development cooperation is and must be the fight against poverty; stresses, however, that this fight is not limited to material growth and that, therefore, democracy-building and the promotion of basic human rights, the rule of law and the principles of justice, equity, transparency and accountability must always be central themes of any such cooperation;

2.  Recalls the commitment made by G8 countries at Gleneagles in 2005 to double aid to Sub-Saharan Africa by 2010 and expresses disappointment that, according to the OECD, ODA excluding debt relief to Sub-Saharan Africa 'was static in 2006';

3.  Stresses that in order to meet their financial commitments to Africa, the G8 donors will each have to provide an additional EUR 15 billion to Africa by 2010, over and above their 2004 levels, but that they have so far been off track;

4.  Regrets that at the recent G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, leaders failed to do enough to guarantee their promises to Africa and is concerned that although the G8 reiterated their 2005 pledge to increase ODA to Africa by EUR 18,6 billion a year by 2010, the G8 did not commit to an accountable timetable for delivering these aid promises;

5.  Stresses that the G8 announcement of EUR 44,7 billion for HIV, health, TB and Malaria includes considerable amounts of money from existing spending levels and is not sufficient to set the G8 back on track for overall ODA commitments; therefore calls on the G8 to ensure that this commitment is now accompanied by other commitments in other health sectors and on education, trade, governance and peace and security to truly ensure that the G8 deliver on their promises to Africa;

6.  Welcomes the action taken by many EU countries in writing off the debt of developing countries; expresses concern, nevertheless, that such debt write-offs have artificially boosted EU aid figures by nearly 30 % in 2006, meaning that the Member States spent 0,31 % of GNI on actual aid last year, failing to meet the collective intermediary objective of 0,33 %;

7.  Calls on the EU and the G8 to disaggregate debt cancellation and relief from aid figures in line with the 2002 Monterrey Consensus and the above-mentioned GAERC conclusions of April 2006;

8.  Regrets that at the mid-point in the implementation period for the MDGs, ODA from the EU-15 is decreasing as a share of GNI from 0,44 % ODA/GNI in 2005 to 0,43 % ODA/GNI in 2006;

9.  Welcomes the fact that aid provided by the Commission rose by 5,7 % to EUR 7.5 billion in 2006, reflecting improved disbursement capacity from the higher level of commitments made in recent years;

10.  Commends those Member States that have reached or exceeded the 0,7 % ODA/GNI target and those that are increasing their actual aid levels, but regrets that some EU-15 countries have failed to meet the interim 0.33% target by a wide margin in 2006;

11.  Notes that Portugal, which is due to host the EU-Africa Summit during its Presidency, achieved only 0.21% ODA/GNI in 2006;

12.  Notes that the worst inflators of aid are Austria (57 %), France (52 %), Italy (44 %), Germany (53 %) and the UK (28 %), and further notes that Germany, which currently holds the Presidencies of both the EU and G8, would not have reached the target of 0,33 % ODA/GNI without inflating its aid;

13.  Calls on all Member States that are off-track to honour the promises made in Barcelona, Gleneagles and Monterrey, and to urgently commit themselves to a scaling up of real aid in 2007, and calls on the Commission to support those Member States in carefully planning the financial and organisational aspects for forthcoming aid increases to ensure that the EU interim 2010 target of 0,56 % GNI is met;

14.  Argues that the budget review, starting in 2008, should take into account the EU's increasingly important role in the world and enable development expenditure to increase; in this context, the EU might decide to implement new ways of funding the MDGs, such as through the European Investment Bank (EIB) and calls on the EIB to ensure that the same political accountability is extended to Parliament on the funding of such projects as for other EIB operations;

15.  Calls on the Commission to plan for the clear likelihood that the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) will not be ratified by all 27 Member States before 2010 and should therefore urgently ensure that funds are available during the transitional period (2008ñ2010);

16.  Urges the Commission to continue to explore innovative sources of finance as alternative ways of securing funding for development programmes;

17.  Urges the Member States to undertake regular assessments of progress towards ODA targets and welcomes the Commission proposal that the Member States put national timetables in place to ensure that they are on track towards reaching agreed country-ODA targets by 2010/2015 and to improve the long-term predictability of their aid flows;

18.  Urges the EU and the G8 to recognise the growing importance of new donors, and in particular China, and to engage these new donors in a dialogue on approaches and standards for external assistance, including on the importance of applying internationally agreed norms and standards in aid implementation;

19.  Calls on the G8 de-link all aid from their national economic interests, noting that as a group, the G8 currently tie 29 % of their aid to developing countries, as opposed to the total donor average of 24 %;

Debt relief

20.  Stresses that possibly as many as 60 countries need all of their debts to be cancelled if they are to have any chance of achieving the MDGs and that there are yet more countries that require further debt relief, including a number of countries with "odious debts", such as those contracted by South Africa's former apartheid regime;

21.  Welcomes the World Bank finding that countries receiving debt relief under Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative have, between 1999 and 2005, more than doubled their expenditure on poverty reduction plans;

22.  Calls on countries to meet their obligations to use funds released by debt relief and cancellation transparently and accountably, and further argues that debt relief should be withheld only if there is a broad consensus in their parliaments and among civil society organisations that standards of transparency and accountability are not being met;

23.  Stresses that long-term debt sustainability will depend on responsible lending policies, the provision of appropriate financing, the maintenance of sound economic policies, strengthened debt management and sound public and parliamentary accountability of loan contraction, as well as export performance and particularly export diversification;

24.  Calls on Member States to ensure that any economic restructuring conditions attached to debt relief be limited to achieving a return to debt sustainability, and that such conditions do not constitute counter-productive constraints on the public funding of measures to combat poverty;

25.  Calls on all donors and creditors to make all information relating to loans and debt write offs easily available and accessible in partner countries and to insist on the same transparency for commercial creditors;

26.  Calls on Member States to act on the 'supply side' of corruption by investigating, prosecuting and blacklisting bribe givers and to protect poor countries from 'vulture funds';

27.  Calls on the World Bank to make more concessional financing available to countries striving to achieve the MDGs;

Financing human and social development

28.  Urges the EU to increase its ODA commitments to education to fill the EUR 5.3 billion financing gap, and given that the major challenge facing the Education For All ñ Fast Track Initiative (FTI) is lack of external finance, the Commission is to be commended for initiating efforts to increase donor pledges but regrets that while commitments made at the Donor Conference held in Brussels on 2 May 2007 should enable 1 million more children to go to school, they still leave another 76 million children without education;

29.  Calls on the EU to increase its proportion of global ODA for health from the current 6,6 %, in order to help bridge the financing gap of EUR 11.9bn per year of the total estimated EUR 21bn per year needed to fulfil global health spending needs, and calls for continuing and increased, predictable support for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria;

30.  Calls on the African Union (AU) to continue its support for the Abuja Declaration of 2001 which confirms that countries should allocate at least 15% of their national budgets for health care but regrets that only two African States have met this promise;

31.  Stresses that developing-country governments have made real progress in the last decade in increasing investment in health and education but that in some cases promises have not been fulfilled, and calls on these governments to set a timetable for reaching the target of investing at least 20 % of government budgets in education and the target of investing 15 % of government budgets in health;

32.  Calls on the Court of Auditors to conduct an audit in 2008 of the commitment in the DCI that by 2009, 20 % of all EU ODA would be allocated to basic health and to basic and secondary education;

Priorities in human and social development

33.  Emphasises that it is a priority to ensure that 'hard-to-reach' children ñ those from conflict-affected fragile States, those with disabilities, from remote regions, chronically poor families or those excluded on the grounds of ethnicity ñ can exercise their right to basic education;

34.  Calls on the EU to give urgent attention to education in conflict-affected fragile States, which currently receive less than one fifth of global education aid despite being home to more than half the world's children missing out on education, and in particular calls on the Humanitarian Aid Department of the Commission (ECHO) to follow through clear guidelines for ECHO support to education in emergency responses;

35.  Calls on the EU to assist countries in building national capacity to track learning outcomes in order to ensure that expanded access to education also delivers quality education;

36.  Deplores the fact that virtually no country in Africa is on track to achieve the MDGs for maternal and child health;

37.  Notes that progress on child mortality lags behind other MDGs despite the availability of simple, low cost interventions that could prevent millions of deaths each year, and stresses that oral rehydration therapy, insecticide-treated bednets, breast-feeding, and common antibiotics for respiratory diseases could prevent an estimated 63% of child deaths;

38.  Believes that health care infrastructure deserves stable and long term financial support from national budgets and international assistance in order to deliver the health-related MDGs, such as reducing infant mortality by increasing immunisation coverage, reducing maternal mortality by increasing access to skilled professionals, supporting research and development of and access to new diagnostics and therapies, providing safe drinking water and sanitation, and scaling up significantly towards the goal of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support of HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and other diseases by 2010, including for marginalised populations and those most vulnerable to infectious diseases;

39.  Calls on the international donor community to assist developing countries in developing and implementing comprehensive health action programmes, tackling issues such as the need to secure sustainable financing for health infrastructure and salaries, increase investment in training and avoid an excessive "brain drain" through the migration of high-skilled health workers;

40.  Welcomes the Johannesburg Declaration of the 3rd Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Health of 9-13 April 2007 on the Strengthening of Health Systems for Equity and Development as an important initiative towards achieving the health MDGs; calls on the EU to support the AU member states in implementing the programmes based on that Declaration;

41.  Urges the EU to continue to be at the vanguard of efforts to support sexual and reproductive health rights by maintaining levels of funding for the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, and regrets that while Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of maternal mortality, it also has the lowest rate of contraceptive use in the world (19 %) and 30 % of all maternal deaths on the continent are caused by unsafe abortions;

42.  Points out that the UN plans to adopt a new target on MDG 5 on Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and therefore notes the Maputo Plan of Action for the Operationalisation of the Continental Policy Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 2007ñ2010 adopted by the Special Session of AU Conference of Ministers of Health of 18-22 September 2006;

43.  Stresses the urgent need to tackle gender-based violence in all forms because violence impact on girls' access to education and health and is also one of the main drivers of the HIV pandemic and therefore a key barrier to achieving greater gender equality in developing countries;

44.  Calls on the Commission to step up its commitment to combating HIV/AIDS in developing countries and to ensure that those most affected have ever better access, at affordable prices, to prevention resources and policies, antiretroviral treatments and healthcare services (infrastructure, personnel and medicines) capable of meeting the growing demand;

45.  Notes that all the MDGs are critically dependent on stemming the HIV/AIDS epidemic and asks the Commission to accord the highest priority to addressing this global pandemic by supporting an intensified and comprehensive response; points out that the response should ensure universal access to existing prevention and treatment as well as adequate investment in the development of and universal access to a wide range of prevention technologies, including microbicides and vaccines; and calls on the EU to promote greater industry participation, a more coordinated scientific effort, and policies and programmes that accelerate the testing of novel vaccines and microbicides;

46.  Calls on the EU to increase funding to ensure that progress in basic science and biomedicine results in new and affordable drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for neglected diseases, to support the development phases of R&D and to secure the use of new products by neglected populations whilst respecting the TRIPS provisions;

47.  Calls on the EU to support the full implementation of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health of the WTO Ministerial Conference of 9-14 November 2001, and to ensure that medicines are affordable for those for those developing countries that do take measures in compliance with the Doha Declaration, and further calls on the EU to provide technical assistance to developing countries for the implementation of pro-public-health measures in patent law;

48.  Stresses the need for a comprehensive review of those systems in place that are failing to solve the access to medicines problem, to include submitting recommendations to the WTO for amendment to its rules governing the export of medicines under compulsory licence, known as the August 30th decision;

49.  Points out that according to some estimates, two million teachers and over four million health workers need to be recruited to make health and education for all a reality and that EUR 10bn must be invested every year in training and salaries for quality teachers and health workers;

50.  Calls on poor-country governments to set salaries of existing health workers and teachers at dignified levels in collaboration with their trade unions;

51.  Calls on poor-country governments to ensure parliamentary and citizen representation and oversight in monitoring public services and to facilitate the participation of civil society and local authorities in local and national planning and budget processes, including agreements and contracts signed with donors;

52.  Stresses that in some countries rates of malnutrition are increasing and that for the whole of Africa, an estimated 3.7 million more children will be malnourished in 2015 than today and calls on the EU to review and evaluate whether its indirect investment deal effectively with malnutrition;

53.  Calls on the international donor community to redouble their efforts and to coordinate specific policies for tackling chronic hunger and guaranteeing food security, by adopting an overall approach which addresses the multiple root causes of the problem; urges governments to honour their obligations to respect, protect and meet the right to food, in particular by fostering access to food for all;

54.  Calls on EU donors to immediately start using internationally agreed indicators on nutrition to report progress on food security, safety nets and social protection, governance, water, sanitation and health;

Aid quality and poverty-focused development cooperation

55.  Insists that Commission and Member States use the above-mentioned EU Code of Conduct on Division of Labour Development Cooperation to ensure that spending and programmes on health and education are better coordinated and to ensure a sharper focus on neglected aid-orphan countries, including countries in crisis and fragile States;

56.  Urges all Member States to fully implement the agreed above-mentioned Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and stresses that more effort needs to be made by the EU in relation to mutual accountability, ownership by partner countries and reform of technical assistance because DAC Member States scored badly in these three areas in the recent OECD baseline survey on implementing the Paris Declaration;

57.  Calls on the EU to support partners in building their in-country capacity to lead a coherent development management process, as this remains central to ensuring countries' rightful ownership and leadership of their own development process;

58.  Believes that micro-financing is one of the most essential instruments in the fight against poverty as it empowers the poor themselves to actively participate in this fight;

59.  Stresses that one of the principal routes out of poverty and to empower women and men is to guarantee productive high-quality work with a decent income;

60.  Believes that gender- specific priorities and children's rights need to be re-focused in EU development policy both as basic rights and as part of the governance criteria applied under the Cotonou Agreement and elsewhere;

61.  Welcomes the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace that has recently been launched, with the aim of ensuring that gender is not sidelined in the implementation and review of the Paris Declaration;

62.  Believes that Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) are potentially important tools for achieving the MDGs, but that they should be drafted, implemented, monitored and evaluated in consultation with parliaments in ACP countries and Member States, Parliament, civil society and local authorities and should focus on meeting MDG objectives;

63.  Expresses concern about the lack of flexibility in EC programming which defines limited priorities at the start of a programming cycle and then does not allow for new issues to be supported, even if requested directly by partner governments;

64.  Stresses that the long-term goal of development cooperation must be to create the conditions for sustainable economic, social and environmental development; underlines, in this context, the need to promote public-private initiative partnerships, including support measures to small and medium-sized enterprises, to raise productivity and employment;

65.  Stresses the high potential of foreign direct investment in terms of development, sustained economic growth, the transfer of know-how, entrepreneurship and technology and job creation; underlines, in this context, the importance of a transparent, predictable and favourable investment climate, minimising red tape for business, respecting property rights, promoting competition and striving for sound macro-economic policies;

66.  Calls on donors and recipients to support improved data for MDG implementation and monitoring;

67.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that when funds are spent on infrastructure, poverty reduction remains the key focus of all projects;

68.  Acknowledges that current EU funds and facilities such as the Infrastructure Facility, the Water Facility and the Energy Facility address important issues;

69.  Calls on the EU to strengthen its partnerships with developing countries in a way that encourages mutual accountability and reciprocal obligations by establishing predictable benchmarks and deadlines for ODA increases, in order to facilitate recipient countries' planning for increases in public investment;

70.  Stresses that all means must be used to achieve the MDGs, which require the broadest possible partnerships of stakeholders, especially with developing-country national parliaments and civil society and local authorities and private partners;

71.  Trusts that agreement will be reached during the drafting of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy on the fundamental importance of reaching the MDGs by 2015;

General budget support

72.  Insists that the EU and partner governments ensure that budget support always takes the form of sector-specific budget aid that earmarks money for a specific sector in which the funding should be spent, use poverty-related targets that directly measure the outcome of policies instead of mere budgetary input and output, put in place mechanisms and monitoring tools to ensure that an adequate proportion of general budget support aid is supporting basic needs, particularly in health and education, stresses that this must be accompanied by support for capacity-building, and emphasises that a percentage of 0,5 % of the granted budget support should be reserved exclusively for civil society watchdogs;

73.  Calls on the EU to support coherent MDG management of general budget support across different parts of the executive and legislature and to provide support for scrutiny by parliaments, civil society and local authorities of budget support to ensure a strong and clear link between budget support aid and the achievement of the MDGs;

74.  Calls for national parliament and civil society participation in effective budgetary monitoring in the form of public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS) which make a detailed comparison between "income" and "outcome" on the basis of the DAC criteria;

75.  Calls on the EU to increase the proportion of its aid spent through direct budget support to those countries that have given proof of good governance, respect for human rights and the principles of democracy;

76.  Stresses that budget support in its common form is essentially another short-term agreement between donors and governments, with few agreements exceeding three years, and calls on donors to increase the term of the commitments they make, possibly along the lines proposed by the Commission for "MDG Contracts" involving six year commitments and clear understanding and clarity as to when and how such support would be suspended;

77.  Calls on countries to focus on the implications of general budget support for women's equality and gender relations, because overall increases in financing do not necessarily overcome the unequal access and status of marginalised groups including women and people with disabilities;

Governance

78.  Recalls that the Cotonou Agreement has a framework for dialogue between EU and ACP States on governance issues and calls on the EU to strengthen this framework instead of adding new initiatives, strategies and policies;

79.  Regrets that the Commission's communication on Governance in the European Consensus on Development (COM(2006)421), which proposes an incentive tranche for budget support, reduces the MDGs to only one of twenty-three indicators among other indicators such as trade liberalisation, counter-terrorism and migration which are irrelevant to the achievement of the MDGs, and believes that the governance instrument should be focused on the commitment of the partner country to implementing the MDGs;

80.  Urges the Commisssion to grasp the opportunity presented by the 2008 review of the governance approach to listen to the views of European and African parliaments and civil society organisations, as well as Member States and African governments, and adapt its governance approach accordingly;

81.  Reminds the governments of developing countries that progress in meeting the MDGs is frequently hindered by endemic corruption, poor governance and questionable health care strategies, and stresses that poverty will never be eliminated unless the systemic failures that cause it are likewise acknowledged, tackled and eliminated;

82.  Calls on the developing countries to improve their own prosperity potential by instituting programmes of economic liberalisation, especially in the area of property rights, which would release at a stroke substantial capital for immediate investment ñ which would in itself facilitate the earlier meeting of the MDGs;

83.  Calls on all bilateral and multilateral donors and export credit agencies to develop a set of conditions based on the liability of governments to their citizens and a system of partnership where non-humanitarian aid is conditional on compliance with a series of specific criteria and, in particular, public transparency about revenue streams;

Peace and security

84.  Recalls that peace and security are vital to achieving the MDGs, and therefore urges the EU to ensure that its development policies have a positive impact on peace-building;

85.  Recalls the commitment to mainstreaming conflict-sensitivity in all EU policies and instruments, as advocated in the 2001 Goteborg Programme for the Prevention of Violent Conflicts, and calls on the EU to implement the latest adopted tools to prevent conflict, such as the EU Small Arms and Light Weapons Strategy, the EU Policy Framework for Security Sector Reform and the Joint EU Concept on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-integration (DDR);

86.  Welcomes the fact that an arms trade treaty now has the support of 80 % of the world's governments, and urges the EU to play its part in ensuring that an international, legally binding treaty can be agreed;

Trade

87.  Calls on the EU to adopt a coherent policy between its trade, fisheries, development cooperation and common agricultural policies to avoid direct or indirect negative impacts on the economy of developing countries;

88.  Stresses that opening up trade can be one of the most effective drivers of economic growth, but that it needs to be complemented by redistributive and social domestic policies in order for poverty to be reduced;

89.  Stresses the promise of the Doha Development Round and the need for fair and equitable international rules-based trade systems designed to correct the trading imbalances in global trade, especially where Africa is concerned, calls on the EU to make the utmost effort to end the stalemate in the WTO negotiations;

90.  Notes that according to the Chair of the deadlocked Doha Round, in order to facilitate a development friendly agreement, the EU must envisage cutting its trade-distorting agricultural export subsidies by an estimated 70 % and that agreement on subsidy and tariff cuts must be reached in order for the negotiations to be concluded by the end of 2007;

91.  Believes that fair trade is an important tool in building sustainable trade with fair returns for producers in the developing world; calls on the Commission to respond to Parliament's above-mentioned resolution on fair trade and development with a recommendation to support fair trade as outlined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of that resolution;

92.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that its commercial agreements contribute to, instead of hampering, the achievement of the MDGs; in particular, it should ensure that EPAs constitute instruments for ACP development and poverty eradication;

93.  Believes that pharmaceutical-related TRIPS affecting public health and access to medicines which go beyond the TRIPS Agreement should be excluded from EPAs and other future bilateral or regional agreements with low-income countries;

94.  Believes that all ACP countries must have a clear right to choose whether to extend the negotiations beyond trade in goods, and calls on the Commission to ensure that intellectual property rights and the Singapore issues (competition policy, public procurement and investment) are taken off the negotiating table if ACP countries do not wish to negotiate them;

95.  Calls on the Commission to avoid disruption of trade for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and therefore urges the Commission to ensure that, if the negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) cannot be completed before the end of 2007, arrangements will be made to avoid uncertainty for our ACP partners; stresses that this requires a guarantee that, regardless of the state of the EPA negotiations at that time, ACP terms and conditions of access to the EU market will remain equivalent to the current ones, as agreed in the Cotonou Agreement(8) ; calls on the Commission to clarify how such arrangements could be made in order to avoid uncertainty for exporters and importers;

96.  Takes note of recent studies by UNCTAD and others which show that extensive trade liberalisation in LDCs has had little effect on sustained and substantial poverty reduction objectives and has contributed to a decline in the terms of trade of developing countries, in particular of African countries; and calls on the EU to start a sustained, sincere campaign to genuinely increase the export capacity of LDCs by promoting technical assistance to further physio-sanitary standards, property law, business skills and value-addition programmes;

97.  Calls on the Commission to adjust its cooperation and trade policies as far as possible in order to help the governments of developing countries to maintain and develop public services, particularly those guaranteeing access for the population as whole to drinking water, health services, education and transport;

98.  Urges that full account be taken of the fact that ACP countries are often heavily dependent on primary commodities, which are particularly vulnerable to price fluctuations and tariff escalation, and stresses the importance of diversification, and of the development of processing industries and SMEs in those countries;

99.  Stresses the importance of capacity-building for trade and the need for additional resources from the EU to enhance ACP countries' ability to identify needs and strategies, to negotiate and to support regional integration, to diversify and prepare for liberalisation by enhancing production, supply and trading capacity and to offset adjustment costs as well as to increase their ability to attract investment;

100.  Calls on the Commission to increase its trade-related assistance to support capacity-building, which is essential if the poorest countries are to be able to tackle the increased competition resulting from market liberalisation;

Climate change

101.  Urges the EU to continue to play a leading role in promoting cleaner, more efficient approaches to sustainable and low-carbon development;

102.  Points out that poor communities in developing countries have contributed the least to climate change but are likely to suffer the effects most severely; calls on the EU to make significant funding available to enable developing countries to adapt to sea level rises and the increased strength and frequency of extreme weather events like droughts, heavy storms, flooding, etc., as well as to ensuing health, food production and water stresses, which would put development at risk and may lead to large-scale migration and security threats;

103.  Calls on the EU to make significant funding available to enable poor countries to adapt to climate change and stresses that it cannot simply be channelled from existing aid budgets; and further believes that a significant proportion of the revenue raised by auctioning allocations under the European Emissions Trading Scheme and taxing carbon should be used to fund clean development in developing countries;

104.  Stresses that adaptation must not be dealt with only as a humanitarian issue or as a priority only within the context of the climate convention; emphasises that risk reduction and "climate proofing" measures must be integrated into the overarching development agenda, including in PRSPs and CSPs;

105.  Recognises that IPR licensing fees in the area of clean technology may constitute a barrier to the transfer of such technology to developing countries; stresses that in order to combat energy poverty and ensure a sustainable path of development, IPR partnerships must be developed between industrialised and developing countries, in order to ensure respect for property rights while at the same time facilitating technology flows;

106.  Stresses that although energy is not specifically addressed in the Millennium Declaration, the provision of modern energy services to the poor is a crucial prerequisite to achieving the MDGs; points out that the preconditions for renewable energy technologies are excellent in many developing countries, providing an effective way of meeting soaring oil costs and meeting energy needs while avoiding a further harmful impact on climate; regrets that insufficient financial resources have been allocated by the EU for addressing the energy poverty challenge; emphasises for this purpose the need for increased aid flows, as well as enhanced support for private investment in renewable energy technologies;

Post-MDG agenda

107.  Stresses that if the MDGs are to be achieved, the proportion of people in poverty will be halved within a decade, a huge achievement but one that will nevertheless leave hundreds of millions of poorest and most vulnerable people trapped in chronic poverty;

108.  Calls on the EU to set a date for agreement on a poverty elimination strategy post 2015;

109.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the candidate countries, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

See below or click here for the resolution online

The European Parliament ,

ñ   having regard to Article 177 and Article 180 of the EC Treaty,

ñ   having regard to the UN Millennium Declaration of 18 September 2000, which sets out the Millennium Development Goals as objectives established jointly by the international community for the elimination of poverty,

ñ   having regard to the Programme of Action of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994,

ñ   having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament entitled "Community support for economic reform programmes and structural adjustment: review and prospects" (COM2000/0085)

ñ   having regard to the Guide to the Programming and Implementation of Budget Support for Third Countries produced by the EuropeAid Co-operation Office (AIDCO) and the Directorates-General for Development (DEV) and External Relations (RELEX), of April 2003,

ñ   having regard to the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the European Community signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 (the Cotonou Partnership Agreement),

ñ   having regard to the Joint Evaluation of General Budget Support, Synthesis Report, of May 2006, produced by the International Development Department of the University of Birmingham and associates,

ñ   having regard to the Court of Auditors' Special Report No 5/2001 on counterpart funds from structural adjustment support earmarked for budget aid (seventh and eighth EDFs), together with the Commission's replies,

ñ   having regard to the Court of Auditors' Special Report No 2/2005 concerning EDF budget aid to ACP countries: the Commission's management of the public finance reform aspect, together with the Commission's replies,

ñ   having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament entitled "Cooperation with ACP countries involved in armed conflicts"

ñ   having regard to its resolution of 6 April 2006 on aid effectiveness and corruption in developing countries,

ñ   having regard to the Note of the Policy Department of the Directorate-General for External Policies of the European Parliament, on the advantages and disadvantages of budget support as a modality for the delivery of aid, of June 2004,

ñ   having regard to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) high level meeting held in Paris in March 2005,

ñ   having regard to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, dated 2 March, 2005,

ñ   having regard to Performance Measurement Framework of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Programme (PEFA) of June 2005,

ñ   having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

ñ   having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and the opinion of the Committee on Budgets

A.   whereas there are ongoing discussions on how to obtain the most effective results from development funds in order to benefit people in recipient countries,

B.   whereas it must be stated that efforts over the course of several decades to improve the day-to-day living conditions of people in developing countries have failed in many parts of the world, for a variety of complex reasons and circumstances, some of which can clearly be identified as bad governance, misuse of funds and corruption,

C.   whereas the need to engage in development cooperation requires continuous justification not only vis-‡-vis the general public but also in the context of interaction with other stakeholders in the field of public expenditure,

D.   whereas budget support is acknowledged as an essential instrument of European Community development cooperation and whereas approximately one fifth of EDF aid is in the form of untargeted budget support,

E.   whereas the importance of providing predictable government-to-government support using recipient countries' own systems, as far as possible, was recognised by the DAC high level meeting held in Paris in March 2005,

F.   whereas budget support allows for closer donor coordination,

G.   whereas effective recipient state structures, both in terms of a functioning democracy respecting fundamental freedoms, human rights and political pluralism and in terms of budgetary processes, expenditure competency and service provision that are amenable to scrutiny, are crucial to the effectiveness of budget support,

H.   whereas budget support can empower the recipient to determine its development process,

I.   whereas the budget support process takes place within a framework of partnership, in terms of priority setting and assessment, through continuous donor-recipient policy dialogue,

J.   whereas budget support should also encourage the strengthening of democratic processes, affording policy space to civil society, especially through involvement in the shaping of a poverty reduction and development strategy, and promoting parliamentary scrutiny of development policy and budget spending,

K.   whereas budget support can be either general budget support, which covers the overall macro-economic and budget framework, or sectoral budget support,

L.   whereas the key considerations in deciding the allocation of budget support funding are: the 'external financing gap', the degree of poverty, good governance, past performance, development commitment and a realistic assessment of possible results, in terms of poverty reduction, growth and institutional reform,

M.   whereas funds provided as general budget support are fully fungible, as transfers are made directly into the treasury account of a country, which effectively means that control over, ownership of and accountability with regard to the utilisation of those funds rests with the recipient,

N.   whereas Articles 61(2) and 67 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement clearly determine the conditions governing the eligibility of a recipient country for budget support, expressly stating the need for standards regarding public expenditure management, macro-economic and sectoral policies and public procurement and, furthermore, requiring the donor and recipient to ensure that adjustment is economically viable and socially and politically workable,

O.   whereas a functioning parliamentary democracy respecting fundamental freedoms and human rights, including political pluralism, and an effective public financial management system are prerequisites for budget support, and should be assessed in terms of the extent to which the recipient country is characterised by good governance, scrutiny by a democratically elected parliament, the rule of law, government accountability, competence, well-defined macro-economic, developmental and sectoral policies and the degree of openness and transparency of its public procurement,

P.   whereas risk should be measured in terms of the ability of the state bodies concerned to administer and implement funds, good governance, commitment to development principles, the incidence of corruption, democracy and human rights,

Q.   whereas effective public financial management and budgetary systems aimed at creating a stable macro-economic climate are essential preconditions for development,

R.   whereas a number of budget support partner countries, especially in the ACP states, have extremely poor public financial management systems,

S.   whereas the donor-recipient partnership needs to ensure an effective joint analysis of the results of development policy implementation and reforms which are crucial to the assessment of the viability of budget support,

1.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to use budget support only if the net benefits of such a mechanism can be demonstrated in the light of clearly objectifiable criteria, and only after a full assessment of the risks involved;

2.  Stresses that budget support as an aid modality can be successful only if both partners fully assume their responsibilities in a true spirit of partnership and ownership;

3.  Calls for budget support to focus, as far as possible, on poverty reduction development priorities, for those priorities to be given a central role in the donor-recipient policy dialogue and for parliamentary scrutiny to be ensured in respect of both the donor and the recipient;

4.  Stresses the importance of capacity-building by recipient governments, which have to assume a stronger leadership role in development assistance coordination;

5.  Stresses the importance of creating a culture of accountability which fully involves parliaments and the supreme audit institutions; recognises that budget support must go hand in hand with the strengthening of civil society;

6.  Regards the equitable application of clear, explicit and realistic conditions, agreed upon by all parties and attached to the budget support programme, as essential to the instrument in question and necessary in order to counteract unpredictable volatility in the granting of aid;

7.  Commends the eligibility criteria for the use of budget support with ACP states, as enshrined in Articles 61(2) and 67 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement;

8.  Is concerned about the decision to use budget support in Malawi, where there were considerable known risks, and Kenya, in regard to which all Member States have suspended budget support, thus calling into question the Commission's ability to use this instrument effectively;

9.  Is concerned by the findings of the Court of Auditors that, in some cases, the Commission's reasons for granting budget support to countries with poor public financial management systems were insufficient, and that Articles 61(2) and 67 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement were often given a broad and subjective interpretation;

10.  Is alarmed that the Court of Auditors has found inadequacies in the Commission's overall coherence of the budget support instrument and in the controls and monitoring and support for the recipient countries' own budgetary scrutiny mechanisms, namely the parliaments and supreme audit institutions of the countries concerned, and that technical assistance is being underused; all of these elements being indispensable to the instrument;

11.  Recognises that there can only be one macro-economic reform programme in any given country, which is usually directed by the international financial institutions, but in relation to which the Commission and Member States should seek to play an active role in an effort to influence policy;

12.  Recalls that macro-economic reforms can have a sustainable effect only when they fully embrace the objectives of human and social development;

13.  Believes that sectoral budget support or sector-wide approaches should be considered as privileged instruments for intervention in the health and education sectors;

14.  Reaffirms that 20% of total annual commitments should be allocated to activities in the sectors of basic and secondary education and basic health (including sexual and reproductive health);

15.  Calls on the Commission to adopt and apply the new international performance measurement framework in order to assess a country's public financial management, as established by PEFA;

16.  Calls on the Commission to react coherently and even-handedly when countries cease to respect the principles of democracy and human rights;

17.  Calls on the Commission to assess the prevalence and risks posed by corruption, in line with Articles 9(3) and 97 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement;

18.  Calls upon the Commission to seek coherence in policy and decision-making within donor budget support partnerships and demands that donor funds be administered effectively so as to eliminate the possibility of unpredictable volatility in the granting of aid, and considers that the Commission is best placed to facilitate EU donor coordination;

19.  Considers it crucial that the disbursement of funds and the evaluation process be aligned with the recipients' own development strategy, budget and evaluation processes;

20.  Calls on the Commission to maintain its strong focus on equity and poverty reduction, concentrating on the most marginalised and poor amongst society;

21.  Commends the use of variable tranches, which offer results-based incentives, but notes that any variance of disbursement should be predictable, as far as possible, so as not to impact negatively on budgetary planning;

22.  Is concerned about the difficulty inherent in assessing the achievement of performance indicators and especially poverty impact results, and calls on the Commission to support capacity development in statistics, data collection, quality assessment and analysis;

23.  Calls on the Commission to verify at regular intervals, in collaboration with all stakeholders, that the economic policies of the recipient countries are in accordance with the objectives and principles of the development assistance and that its conditions are being fulfilled;

24.  Calls on the Commission, Member States and the beneficiary countries to provide regular information to the general public in this sector, in order to make the impact of budget aid visible to the European taxpayer and to raise awareness of the need for development cooperation in general and the effects of budget support in particular, to counter general allegations of misuse of funds and to provide information on the basic requirements for the use of budget support and also on the cases where such support has proven ineffective; urges the Commission to improve the visibility of the EU in development aid and to document and demonstrate the progress made by beneficiary third countries in administering budget aid independently;

25.  Calls on the Commission to assess at regular intervals the effectiveness of budget aid in combating poverty from the point of view of cost-effectiveness, and to show progress made by the third-country beneficiaries in independently administering the budget aid; in doing so, it should distinguish between general and sector-specific budget aid, so as to achieve greater clarity with regard to the effectiveness of the various aid instruments in reducing poverty; the administrative costs of budget and project aid must also be evaluated; the aim should be to be in a position to give a reasoned account of when each instrument should be used;

26.  Calls on the Commission to tackle the shortcomings in control and supervision by introducing an external control for budget aid (for example via the Court of Auditors); the Commission should be encouraged to take the initiative of setting up a joint supervisory institution together with the other large financial donors;

27.  Insists that, in order to support the beneficiary countries" own budgetary control mechanisms, the parliament of any given beneficiary country should participate in adopting the budget, and the budget law should be published; insists further that budget aid should be evaluated annually by the parliament in terms of the progress achieved;

28.  Calls on the Commission to state how budget aid can be limited in time; notes that the ultimate aim of budget support must be to build up the self-sufficiency of the beneficiary country, so the Commission should state over what (reasonable) timescale this can be achieved;

29.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

See below or click here for the resolution online

European Parliament resolution on AIDS

The European Parliament ,

ñ   having regard to its resolution of 6 July 2006 entitled "HIV/AIDS: Time to Deliver"(1) and its resolution of 2 December 2004 on World Aids Day(2) ,

ñ   having regard to World AIDS Day on 1 December 2006 and its theme: "Accountability: Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise",

ñ   having regard to the UNAIDS(3) 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update, published on 21 November 2006,

ñ   having regard to the UN High Level Meeting to review progress on the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, held from 31 May to 2 June 2006,

ñ   having regard to the XVI International AIDS Conference, held in Toronto in August 2006,

ñ   having regard to the Commission Communication to the European Parliament and the Council of 27 April 2005 entitled 'European Programme for Action to Confront HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis through External Action (2007-2011) (COM(2005)0179) which covers all developing countries,

ñ   having regard to the Commission Communication to the European Parliament and the Council on combating HIV/AIDS within the European Union and in the neighbouring countries, 2006-2009 (COM(2005)0654), of 15 December 2005,

ñ   having regard to the G8 Summit held at Gleneagles in July 2005 and the commitment which the UN undertook in 2005 to achieving universal access to prevention treatment and care by 2010,

ñ   having regard to Rule 103(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.   whereas more than 25 million people have died from AIDS since the first identified case of the disease 25 years ago,

B.   whereas there were 4.3 million new cases of infection in 2006, 2.8 million (65%) of which were in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, according to the UNAIDS' update report published on 21 November 2006,

C.   whereas over 95% of the 39.5 million people in the world suffering from HIV/AIDS live in developing countries,

D.   whereas there are indications that infection rates in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have risen by more than 50% since 2004, and only in a few countries have new infections actually declined,

E.   whereas, of the 6.8 million people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries and in need of anti-retroviral medication, only 24% have access to the necessary treatment,

F.   whereas there are an estimated 15 million HIV/AIDS orphans globally, 12.3 million of them living in Sub-Saharan Africa,

G.   whereas only 5% of HIV-positive children receive medical help, and fewer than 10% of the 15 million already orphaned by AIDS get financial support,

H.   whereas older siblings and grandparents take on responsibility for often large numbers of AIDS orphans, and the dying generation of HIV/AIDS-infected young adults is leaving some countries with too few teachers, nurses, doctors and other key professionals,

I.   whereas AIDS disproportionately affects the generation of economically active young people,

J.   whereas women now account for 50% of people living with HIV worldwide and nearly 60% of people living with HIV in Africa,

K.   whereas the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will only be achieved if sexual and reproductive health issues are fully integrated into the MDG agenda,

L.   whereas sexual and reproductive health is dependent upon the prevention of HIV and of other diseases linked to poverty ,

M.   whereas people living with HIV have special reproductive health needs in terms of family planning, safe birthing and the breastfeeding of babies, which are often overlooked in spite of the growing number of women succumbing to the epidemic,

N.   whereas the US Bush administration continues to block funding for non-US development NGOs that counsel on the full range of reproductive health services; and whereas the majority of this "decency gap" has been filled by the EU for the poorest countries,

O.   whereas the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) of 1994 and ICPD follow-up work undertaken in 1999 and 2004 reaffirmed the importance of empowering women and providing them with more choices by improving their access to sexual and reproductive health education, information and care,

P.   whereas five years after the Doha Declaration, rich countries are still failing to fulfil their obligation to ensure that cheaper life-saving drugs are available in developing countries,

Q.   whereas five years after the Doha Declaration, which stated that "each member state of the WTO has the right to grant compulsory licenses and the freedom to determine the grounds upon which such licenses are granted", the WHO warns that 74% of AIDS medicines are still under monopoly and 77% of Africans still have no access to AIDS treatment,

R.   whereas fierce competition in the generic pharmaceuticals industry has helped prices for first-line AIDS drug regimens fall by 99% since 2000, from USD10,000 to roughly USD130 per patient per year, although prices for second-line drugs ñ which patients need as resistance develops naturally ñ remain high, mostly owing to increased use of patents in key generic pharmaceutical-producing countries,

S.   whereas in the negotiation of bilateral trade deals, agreements should not limit how countries may use public-health safeguards,

HIV/AIDS in the world

1.  Expresses its deepest concern at the spread of HIV/AIDS and other epidemics among the poorest peoples in the world and at the lack of focus on the prevention of HIV/AIDS, the inaccessibility of key medicines, the insufficiency of funding and the continuing need for more research into the major epidemics;

2.  Stresses the importance of the accountability of governments, health service providers, the pharmaceuticals industry, NGOs, civil society and others involved in prevention, treatment and care;

3.  Calls on all international donors to work to ensure that HIV prevention programmes reach the people most at risk of infection, as identified in the UNAIDS conclusion that these vulnerable groups are not being provided for;

4.  Stresses the need for the EU to fund specific programmes to ensure that children affected by the AIDS epidemic by the loss of one or both parents or by contracting the disease themselves remain in education and are supported;

5.  Calls for all aid programmes to make sure that, once a patient starts a course of treatment, funding is provided so that treatment can continue to be provided uninterruptedly, in order to prevent the increased drug resistance that results from the interruption of treatment;

6.  Stresses the need for the EU to fund programmes to protect women from all forms of violence that favour the spread of AIDS and to ensure that victims are afforded access to health services and the opportunity to reintegrate into society and to combat the stigma that often affects victims of such violence;

7.  Stresses the need for an overall funding increase from donors in future years for all contraceptive supplies, including condoms for HIV prevention, to fill the gap between supplies and availability to purchase them;

8.  Calls on the IMF to end monetary conditions and abolish fiscal ceilings that force countries to restrict spending on public health and education;

9.  Calls on the newly elected US Congress to overturn the Bush administration's "global gag rule", which stops funding from non-US NGOs to any reproductive health organisations that counsel on abortion, and calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure that the US government reverses its "global gag" on reproductive health spending;

10.  Repeats its concern, expressed also recently by the WHO, that some African governments are charging a sales or import tax on antiretrovirals and other drugs, which then makes the drugs unaffordable to poor communities; urges the Commission to investigate this and to encourage governments to abolish such taxes;

Sexual and reproductive health

11.  Stresses that the strategies needed to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic effectively must include a comprehensive approach to prevention, education, care and treatment and must include the technologies currently in use, improved access to treatment and the development of vaccines as a matter of urgency;

12.  Calls on the European Commission and the governments of the European Union's partner countries to ensure that health and education, and HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health in particular, are prioritised in Country Strategy Papers;

13.  Calls on the Commission and Member States to support programmes that combat homophobia and break down the barriers that prevent the disease from being addressed effectively, especially in Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam and across Latin America, where there is increasing evidence of HIV outbreaks among men who have sex with other men;

14.  Expresses concern that the UNAIDS report highlights that levels of knowledge of safe sex and HIV remain low in many countries, including those in which the epidemic has had a high impact; calls, in this regard, for information, education and counselling on responsible sexual behaviour and effective prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, to become integral components of all reproductive and sexual health services;

15.  Welcomes the inclusion of research into HIV/AIDS in the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technical development and demonstration activities and calls for support for research into vaccines and microbicides, diagnostic and monitoring tools suited to the needs of developing countries, and the study of epidemic transmission patterns and social and behavioural trends; underlines that women must be involved in all appropriate clinical research, including vaccine trials;

16.  Calls for investment in the development of prevention methods that may be used by women, such as microbicides, condoms for women and post-exposure prophylaxis for rape victims;

Access to medicines

17.  Encourages governments to use all means available to them under the TRIPs Agreement, such as compulsory licences, and for the WHO and the WTO and its members to review the whole TRIPs Agreement with a view to improving access to medicines;

18.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to now recognise, five years after the adoption of the Doha Declaration, that its application has been a failure, inasmuch as the WTO has received no notification from an exporting or importing country of compulsory medicines nor any such notification under the Decision of 30 August 2003 of the General Council of the WTO on implementing paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration;

19.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary steps within the WTO, in association with the developing countries, to modify the TRIPS Agreement and its provisions based on the Decision of 30 August 2003 (Article 31a), in order in particular to abolish the complex and time-consuming procedural steps in the authorisation of compulsory licenses;

20.  Meanwhile, encourages and calls on all countries facing major epidemics to make immediate use of Article 30 of the TRIPS Agreement to access the necessary medicines without paying patent royalties to right-owners;

21.  Calls on the Commission to increase to EUR 1 billion the EU's contribution to the global fund against HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, as clearly requested by the European Parliament in its above-mentioned resolution of 2 December 2004, and on all Member States and G8 members to increase their contribution to EUR 7 billion in 2007 and EUR 8 billion in 2008, in order to provide UNAIDS with the resources necessary to reduce the extent of these epidemics;

22.  Calls on the EU to clarify that it will not push for TRIPS-plus measures within Economic Partnership Agreements and that developing countries will be guaranteed the policy space to use TRIPS flexibilities freely;

23.  Supports the commitment undertaken by heads of state and government at the 2005 UN World Summit calling for universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention services, treatment and care by 2010; believes, however, that a clear plan for funding universal access should be developed and international and interim progress targets set;

24.  Stresses that strong public health services, including research facilities, are essential in order to fight the epidemic, and opposes the situation of conditionality leading to their liberalisation;

25.  Calls for greater investment in the development and provision of paediatric formulations for children;

26.  Calls for support for development of regional and national generic pharmaceutical-producing industries in affected areas with a view to facilitating access to affordable drugs;

27.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the EU Member States and ACP countries, the IMF, the Government of the United States, the UN Secretary-General and the heads of UNAIDS, UNDP and UNFPA.

See below or click here for the resolution online

The European Parliament ,

ñ   having regard to United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security (hereinafter: UNSCR 1325 (2000)), stressing the importance of women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security,

ñ   having regard to its resolution of 30 November 2000 on participation of women in peaceful conflict resolution(1) ,

ñ   having regard to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948, and the Vienna Declaration and Action Programme, which resulted from the World Conference on Human Rights from 14 to 25 June 1993,

ñ   having regard to the UN Secretary-General's Bulletin on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (ST/SGB/2003/13),

ñ   having regard to the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women of 20 December 1993(2) , and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, of 20 November 1989,

ñ   having regard to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW) of 18 December 1979, and the Optional Protocol thereto,

ñ   having regard to the UN Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 10 December 1984, and the UN Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict of 14 December 1974(3) , particularly paragraph 4 thereof, stating that all the necessary steps shall be taken to ensure the prohibition of persecution, torture, punitive measures, degrading treatment and violence against women,

ñ   having regard to UN Security Council Resolution 1265 (1999) on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, of 17 September 1999, and particularly paragraph 14 thereof, whereby UN personnel involved in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace building activities have appropriate training, particularly in human rights, including gender-related provisions,

ñ   having regard to the UN Resolution on Women's Participation in the Strengthening of International Peace and Security of 15 December 1975(4) and the UN Declaration on the Participation of Women in Promoting International Peace and Cooperation of 3 December 1982(5) , and particularly paragraph 12 thereof on specific measures to be adopted to increase the involvement of women in promoting peace,

ñ   having regard to the Beijing Declaration and Action Platform which emerged from the UN World Conference on Women of 4 - 15 September 1995, and particularly Section E on Women and Armed Conflict, and the outcome document adopted by the UN's special session Beijing + 5 and Beijing + 10 on new action and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, of 5-9 June 2000, and particularly paragraph 13 thereof on the obstacles to the equal involvement of women in peace efforts and paragraph 124 thereof on equal representation of men and women in peacekeeping missions and peace negotiations,

ñ   having regard to the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court adopted in 17 July 1998, and particularly Articles 7 and 8 thereof, which define rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy and forced sterilisation or any form of sexual violence as crimes against humanity and war crimes and equate them with a form of torture and a serious war crime, whether these acts are systematically perpetrated or not during international or internal conflicts,

ñ   having regard to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols of 1977, which lay down that women are protected against rape and all other forms of sexual violence,

ñ   having regard to the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly's Resolution 1385 (2004) and its Recommendation 1665 (2004) on 'Conflict prevention and resolution: the role of women', both adopted on 23 June 2004,

ñ   having regard to the resolution adopted at the 5th European Ministerial Council on equality between women and men, held in Skopje on 22 and 23 January 2003, entitled 'The roles of women and men in conflict, prevention, peace building and post-conflict democratic processes - a gender perspective',

ñ   having regard to the Declaration on 'Gender equality: a core issue in a changing society' and the corresponding Action Programme adopted at the abovementioned 5th European Ministerial Council,

ñ   having regard to OSCE Ministerial Council Decision No 14/04 of 7 December 2004 in Sofia on the OSCE 2004 Action Plan for promoting gender equality,

ñ   having regard to OSCE Ministerial Council Decision No 14/05 of 6 December 2005 in Ljubljana on Women in Conflict Prevention, Crisis Management and Post-Conflict Rehabilitation,

ñ   having regard to the Recommendation 5 (2002) of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers to Member States on the protection of women against violence, as regards violence during and after conflicts,

ñ   having regard to the Council's 'operational paper' on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2000) in the context of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), as adopted in November 2005,

ñ   having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

ñ   having regard to the report by the Committee on Women's Rights an Gender Equality and the opinion of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Development (A6-0159/2006),

A.   whereas, in times of conflict, woman civilians, like children and old people, are victims of all sorts of ill treatment, including sexual ill-treatment,

B.   whereas in many cases violence against women in armed conflicts constitutes not only physical and/or sexual abuse but also a violation of their economic, social and cultural rights,

C.   whereas the underlying causes of the vulnerability of women in conflict situations often lie in a general social undervaluation of women and their limited access, inter alia, to education and the labour market, and whereas the emancipation of women is therefore a necessary precondition for combating gender-specific violence in armed conflicts,

D.   whereas rape and sexual abuse are used as weapons of war to humiliate and psychologically weaken the enemy; whereas victims are often stigmatised, rejected, mistreated and, in order to restore honour of the community, are sometimes even murdered,

E.   underlining the fact that history has shown that the making of war appears to be a highly male-dominated activity and that therefore there is reason to expect that the particular skills of women in dialogue and non-violence might contribute in a very positive way to peaceful conflict prevention and management,

F.   whereas, in periods of conflict, women encounter difficulties in gaining access to the reproductive care that they require, such as contraception, the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, ante-natal care and the premature termination of pregnancy if the woman so desires, childbirth, postnatal care and treatment of menopause,

G.   whereas voluntary or enforced sexual practices in connection with which women have no access to protection may promote the spread of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and whereas conflicts and camps for displaced persons are critical times and places in this respect,

H.   whereas women victims of sexual abuse during conflicts are rarely able to obtain the protection, psychological attention, medical care and legal remedies which could enable them to overcome their suffering and secure punishment of those who have committed criminal acts against them,

I.   whereas the domestic violence which exists in any conflict situation is not reduced in post-conflict periods, when combatants return home,

J.   whereas, everywhere in the world, women working for peace have used the associative network to build bridges between the warring parties and seek justice for those of their next of kin who have disappeared,

K.   whereas women's peace movements do not always consciously seek to alter social relations and rules which define power relationships between men and women,

L.   whereas the presence of women at the negotiating table and in active roles in peaceful transitions constitute a necessary but insufficient step towards democracy and whereas such women therefore require support and accompaniment on this political journey,

M.   whereas some exceptional women have made the transition from political resistance to the highest offices of State, such as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia and Micheline Bachelet in Chile, but there are still too few such cases,

N.   whereas truth and reconciliation commissions facilitate the reconciliation process in societies emerging from conflict but women still participate in them too little,

O.   whereas the initiatives undertaken by certain countries or international organisations to include this gender dimension should be welcomed and serve as examples of good practice,

P.   whereas women have always been warriors and resistance fighters, but today have become an official part of the armed forces of many countries, this being seen as an expression of sexual equality,

Q.   whereas the kamikaze phenomenon is relatively recent, limited and localised in countries with Islamic traditions and whereas few women become kamikazes,

R.   whereas the frequently desperate situation facing these women politically, personally and socially is a decisive factor in their committing themselves to this path,

S.   whereas today's fundamentalism seeks to justify martyrdom, and women who are involved in resistance movements and militant women in search of social equality are vulnerable to this message,

T.   whereas the extreme focusing of the spotlight of media attention on the phenomenon increases the attraction of suicide attacks to vulnerable young people, because of the honour which will accrue to their families after their death,

1.  Stresses the need to mainstream a gender perspective into peace research, conflict prevention and resolution, peacekeeping operations, post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction and to ensure a gender component in field programmes;

Women as war victims

2.  Recalls the importance of access to reproductive health services in conflict situations and refugee camps, both during and after conflicts, since without these services maternal and infant mortality rates rise and sexually transmissible diseases spread; stresses that the conjugal violence, prostitution and rape which avail under these circumstances make these services even more of a priority, including the need for women to have the possibility of giving birth in hospital without the prior authorisation of a male relative, or terminating unwanted pregnancies, and to have access to psychological help; supports guaranteed immediate access for all women and girls who have been victims of rape to post-coital contraception; considers that measures to ensure full respect for sexual and reproductive rights will help to minimise acts of sexual violence committed in conflict situations;

3.  Emphasizes the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including those relating to sexual violence against women and girls, such as rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, enforced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation and any other form of sexual violence of comparable seriousness and to recognize and condemn these crimes as a crime against humanity and a war crime and in this regard, stresses the need to exclude these crimes, where feasible, from amnesty provisions;

4.  Demands that women who are victims of ill-treatment and violence during conflicts be able to lodge complaints with international courts under conditions compatible with their dignity and under the protection of those courts against physical assault and trauma owing to their being questioned in situations which display insensitivity to trauma; demands that in such cases the women concerned obtain redress in both civil and criminal terms, and that assistance programmes be implemented to help them achieve economic, social and psychological reinsertion;

5.  Believes that stopping the use of child soldiers in conflicts, including small girls, who are subjected to full-blown sexual slavery is a priority; urges that long-term psychological, social, educational and economic programmes be set up for these children;

6.  Condemns violence against women in all circumstances but calls for zero tolerance of the sexual exploitation of children, girls and women in armed conflicts and refugee camps; demands severe administrative and criminal penalties for humanitarian staff, representatives of international institutions, peacekeeping forces and diplomats guilty of such exploitation;

7.  Calls for appropriations to be made available to tackle by means of interdisciplinary programmes the drastic increase in domestic violence in the post-conflict phase due to the general coarsening, physical and economic uncertainty and traumatisation of men too; notes that domestic violence in the post-conflict phase is a neglected phenomenon, which is hardly perceived and yet which sets in stone gender relationships which already existed before the conflict and accentuates the trauma suffered by women due to the (sexualised) violence they have experienced;

8.  Stresses that the large number of women and children among refugees and internally displaced persons being registered by international bodies as a result of armed conflict and civil war is a cause for great concern;

9.  Stresses the special needs of women and girls with respect to mine clearance and underlines the fact that, although 'anti-personnel mines' may have been used in military situations, those killed or maimed by them or whose capacity to earn their livelihood was removed were mostly women, children and ordinary men; reiterates the fact that the EU must aim to promote adherence to the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, principally in Africa, but partly in Europe and elsewhere; urges the EU to intensify efforts to clear post-conflict areas of mines, and to ensure treatment and rehabilitation of victims and reclamation of mined land so that people can live and work there in safety again;

Women as peacemakers

10.  Highlights the positive role that women play in conflict resolution and requests the Commission and the Member States to ensure adequate technical and financial assistance in support of programmes enabling women to participate to the full in the conduct of peace negotiations and empowering women in civil society as a whole;

11.  Stresses the positive role that women can play in post-conflict reconstruction and in particular in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programmes, in particular when such programmes are targeted at child soldiers; calls on Member States to ensure full participation by women in DDR programmes and, in particular, to seek to tailor DDR programmes so as to reintegrate child soldiers;

12.  Strongly supports the call made by a powerful coalition of Kosovar women's organisations on 8 March 2006 for the inclusion of women in the international seven-man Kosovar team negotiating the future status of the region; regrets that so far this call has been ignored;

13.  Stresses that in post-conflict situations, women's peace movements and women's organisations should receive pedagogical, political, financial and legal support, so as to bring about a democratic society respectful of women's rights as well as gender equality in constitutional, legislative and policy reforms; welcomes the various international initiatives, e.g. those of Australia in Papua New Guinea and Norway in Sri Lanka, which are working to this end;

14.  Welcomes the various initiatives to create gender-specific early warning and conflict surveillance indicators, e.g. those taken in the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Council of Europe, the Swiss Foundation for Peace, International Alert and the Forum on Early Warning and Early Response;

15.  Welcomes the fact that in 2005, Council tackled the application of UNSCR 1325 (2000) within the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and that it deals with gender mainstreaming and asks the Council not to overlook the need to integrate human rights and gender-equality advisers within the civil peace-keeping forces run by the European Union, and to ensure gender mainstreaming training;

16.  Reiterates the previous calls for effective parliamentary scrutiny of the ESDP;

17.  Emphasises the importance of the implementation and further development of generic standards of behaviour for ESDP operations, due attention being paid to the consistency of those rules with the rules governing other types of EU presence in third countries, as well as the Guidelines on protection of civilians in EU-led crisis management operations;

18.  Strongly welcomes the Council's 'operational paper' as adopted in November 2005 on the 'Implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2000) in the context of ESDP';

19.  Calls on the EU to support measures aimed at increasing significantly the number of women at all levels in all ESDP missions, in particular to stimulate the candidature of women and to submit their names as candidates for positions as military, police and political officers in ESDP missions at the earliest stage of the planning of such missions;

20.  Is convinced that ESDP mission planning should take into account the inclusion of local women's organisations in the peace process to build on the specific contribution which they can make and to recognise the particular ways in which women are affected by conflict;

21.  Encourages the EU to pay more attention to the presence, preparation, training and equipment of police forces within its military missions, since police units represent the principal means of guaranteeing the security of the civilian population, particularly women and children;

22.  Welcomes the fact that the new peace keeping missions set up by the UN since 2000 include gender-equality advisers and that in 2003, such a post was created within the Peace-keeping Operations Department;

23.  Asks that those brave women who have chosen peaceful forms of resistance not be forgotten, since they have paid, and are still paying, for their resistance by imprisonment, house arrest or kidnapping;

24.  Stresses the need to increase the role of women in political decision-making in national reconstruction processes, and also their political presence at the negotiating table; supports the recommendations of UNSCR 1325 (2000) and its abovementioned resolution of 30 November 2000;

25.  Considers it necessary to promote the increased participation and presence of women in the media and in public opinion platforms through which women may make their opinions heard;

26.  Welcomes the Commission's support for the holding of free elections in countries which have experienced conflict, and the participation of women in such elections; also welcomes the fact that women have been appointed to head certain electoral missions and calls urgently for the number of women appointed to head electoral missions to continue to increase;

27.  Points out the persistence of discrimination against women with regard to access to capital and resources such as food and education, to information technologies and to health care and other social facilities, and considers that women's involvement in economic activities, in rural as well as in urban areas, is of crucial importance in order to support their socio-economic position in post-conflict societies; underlines the positive role that micro-credit already plays in empowering women, and calls on the international community to take steps to encourage its use in countries recovering from conflict;

Women and war

28.  Condemns the glorification of martyrdom now being aimed at young people, including young women; highlights the fact that calls for suicide bombing missions sow confusion between religious fervour, desperate resistance to occupying forces or injustice, and in the last instance, the targets of suicide attacks, who are innocent civilian victims;

29.  Draws attention to the problem of female suicide bombers and stresses that rape used as a weapon of war affects all women, irrespective of ethnic, religious and ideological differences; notes that women who have been raped are socially stigmatised, excluded and even killed;

30.  Welcomes the fact that this phenomenon, its spread and its manipulation by the media are now being denounced by some Islamic authorities in the name of the Koran itself, which promotes respect for life;

31.  Asks that suicide attacks carried out on the basis of a vendetta tradition and on account of political, social or cultural causes be investigated, and urges the international community to ensure that international law is respected, and to bring about peace everywhere where women have been or are in danger of being recruited for use in suicide attacks;

Recommendations

32.  Supports all those recommendations which, since UNSCR 1325 (2000), have sought to improve the lot of women in conflicts, and calls on the Council and Commission to incorporate and implement these recommendations, particularly those made in its abovementioned resolution of 30 November 2000, without further delay into all their policies;

33.  Notes that despite all the resolutions, appeals and recommendations adopted and made by various international and European institutions, women are still not fully involved in conflict-prevention and conflict-resolution, peace-keeping operations and peace-building; notes therefore that it is not fresh recommendations that are called for, and therefore calls for the drawing-up of a practical action programme with the identification of the means necessary for its carrying-out, and assessment of the obstacles to and monitoring of the results of implementation; calls for an annual report to be submitted to the European Parliament on the implementation of the programme;

34.  Stresses the importance of participation by women in diplomacy and calls on Member States to recruit more women to their diplomatic services and train women within those services in negotiation and mediation techniques, thus creating registers of women who are qualified for peace- and security-related posts;

35.  Calls for the concepts of transitional justice to be applied in peace processes and the transition to democracy and the rule of law, while respecting victims' rights, the dignity of female witnesses along with the participation of women in committees of inquiry set up for the purposes of reconciliation, and the incorporation of gender mainstreaming in the measures adopted by these committees;

36.  Proposes to limit its recommendations to what is essential, namely urging the institutions to seek synergies on the specific action to be taken with other international institutions pursuing the same objectives, and to make the best possible use of the new financial instruments of the 2007-2013 financial framework as incentives and means of leverage;

37.  Recommends the Commission, the Council and the Member States to promote the introduction of education for peace, respect for the dignity of the individual and gender equality in all the educational and training programmes of the countries which are in conflict, so as to foment a spirit of peace and an awareness of women's rights within society there and among peace-keeping and peace-making troops, posted EU officials and other international aid organisations; suggests that local women's organisations, mothers' associations, youth camp educators and teachers be associated with this project;

38.  Asks the Commission to report to Parliament on the implementation of the 2003 Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict;

39.  Recommends the Member States to extend their programmes for welcoming children and adolescents coming to Member StatesEU countries from regions in conflict, so as to lift them out of a world of violence and despair which is itself a source of violence, including violence against women; calls on the Council to invite the Member States to facilitate the reception of these young people without raising pointless barriers; urges that agreement be reached with the transit countries not to hinder these humanitarian programmes;

40.  Asks the Commission to support the peace initiatives launched by women's associations, and particularly multicultural, cross-border and regional initiatives by providing political, technical and financial assistance to organisations concerned with conflict resolution and peace-building; urges the Council to ensure that there is political follow-through within the decision-making bodies of the countries concerned; encourages the European Parliament and in particular its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality to establish joint committees for conflict zones, comprising women from these networks and Members of the European Parliament;

41.  Calls on the Commission and other donors to channel resources to support capacity-building by civil society organisations, particularly of local women's groups engaged in non-violent conflict resolution and to provide technical assistance and vocational training;

42.  Believes it is essential that the Commission retain the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights as a specific instrument within the 2007-2013 financial framework; recalls that the instrument has in the past ensured the success of calls for tender and budgetary headings specific to women's rights, without requiring the agreement of the governments in place; calls on the Commission to ensure that within the stability instrument, conflict management includes the gender dimension, so that women's problems in conflict situations can be tackled;

43.  Asks that gender mainstreaming be visible and for it to be verifiably extended throughout the financial instruments, in particular the pre-accession instrument, the European neighbourhood policy, the Development Cooperation and Economic Cooperation Instrument (DCECI) and the Stability Instrument, and form an integral part of the conditionality of association agreements;

44.  Stresses that country strategic plans and action plans provide an excellent channel for this gender mainstreaming, and all the more so when there is political will on both sides; asks that all ESDP activities implement UNSCR 1325 (2000) and its abovementioned resolution of 30 November 2000, and be reported to the European Parliament annually;

45.  Asks that the right to reproductive health be upheld and deemed a Commission priority in its cooperation activities and in the Stability Instrument, in regions in conflict, which should be reflected in its budgetary headings;

46.  Stresses the need to better control the distribution of food, clothing and healthcare items such as sanitary towels during emergency operations and asks the international humanitarian agencies to endorse protection actions inside refugee camps and help improve such actions in order to reduce the risk of violence and sexual abuse against women and girls, and to set up reproductive health programmes in refugee camps and ensure that all women and girls who have been raped have immediate access to post-exposure prophylaxis;

47.  Recommends that the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, the NATO, all competent bodies of the UN including the UNIFEM, the OSCE and possibly other international bodies with proficiency in the field as well, start collaborating on establishing gender-specific indicators which can be monitored during conflicts and which could incorporated into new foreign policy and development instruments or serve as early warnings;

48.  Believes that the involvement of women at all levels of social, economic and political life in a country emerging from a conflict should be on an equal footing with that of men; is aware that, given the cultures and social development of the countries in question, parity cannot be achieved immediately by means of such quotas; asks the Commission therefore to encourage an increase in the level of participation of women in implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2000) in its action plans, to monitor progress towards parity, and to report on the results to the European Parliament;

49.  Supports the due implementation of human rights clauses in agreements with third countries and of the principles of international humanitarian law and related international agreements, with specific reference to women's rights and needs;

50.  Believes that making the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports legally binding will make a major contribution to reducing the suffering of women, by reducing the number of armed conflicts around the globe;

51.  Recommends that Parliament investigate the problem of suicide attacks by women, and launch a study of the issue culminating in a conference bringing together not only specialists but also other people with a knowledge of gender issues from the countries concerned and Islamic religious leaders;

o
o   o

52.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and to the governments of the Member States and the accession and candidate countries.

(1) OJ C 228, 13.8.2001, p. 186. (2) UN General Assembly resolution 48/104. (3) UN General Assembly resolution 3318 (XXIX). (4) UN General Assembly resolution 3519 (XXX). (5) UN General Assembly resolution 37/63.

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European Parliament resolution on World Health Day

The European Parliament

ñ having regard to World Health Day on 7 April 2006, which will be devoted to healthcare workers,

ñ having regard to the Health Workforce Decade (2006-2015), which will be launched on World Health Day,

ñ having regard to the Commissionís Communication on an EU Strategy for Action on the Crisis in Human Resources for Health in Developing Countries, adopted on 12 December 2005,

ñ having regard to the High-Level Forum on the Health MDGs held in Abuja in December 2004, and to its conclusions,

ñ having regard to the Development Policy Statement signed by the Commission, Council and Parliament in December 2005,

ñ having regard to the World Bank report on healthcare ëReaching the Poor: What Works, What Doesnít and Whyí, published on 7 December 2005,

ñ having regard to the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, adopted by the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGASS) in June 2001, and its forthcoming Comprehensive Review and High-Level Meeting in June 2006,

ñ having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas there is a critical shortage of health workers in many parts of the developing world, with migration both from and within poorer regions,

B. whereas the problems affecting the healthcare workforce, such as loss of personnel and productivity, and migration from the public to the private sector, as well as to richer countries, are caused not only by financial factors but by lack of good management, inadequate training, poor career opportunities and unsatisfactory working environments in developing countries, and increasing demand for healthcare professionals in industrialised countries,

C. whereas the negative impact of HIV/AIDS on the general health situation in developing countries has been great, with a knock-on effect on the health workforce in the form of reduced numbers of personnel and general health service distortions resulting from the emphasis on coping with HIV/AIDS,

D. whereas the European Union has an important role to play in providing and supporting an international response, which must be given rapidly,

E. whereas concrete action is needed before this crisis comes to a head, with possible catastrophic effects on the worldís populations,

1. Welcomes the celebration of World Day of Health on 7 April and its focus on the shortage of health workers in developing as well as developed countries;

2. Welcomes the EU Strategy for Action on the Crisis in Human Resources for Health in Developing Countries;

3. Supports the actions proposed in the EU Strategy for Action to reverse the loss of health workers from developing countries through measures such as better training, career opportunities and remuneration, retention incentives, safe working conditions, cooperation with disease-specific initiatives, twinning arrangements, voluntary support and the dissemination of best practice and technical support;

4. Welcomes the undertaking within the EU Strategy for Action to make development assistance less volatile and more predictable;

5. Stresses the need for EU and international support for regional cooperation to promote skill sharing, training, capacity building, comparison of best practice and pooling of resources; underlines that such cooperation can be particularly useful in addressing difficult health situations in post-conflict or post-disaster situations;

6. Calls for the EU and its Member States to press for the setting up of a global Code of Conduct for Ethical Recruitment;

7. Calls for the Member States that are importers of healthcare workers from the developing countries to work in partnership with these countries to support solutions, addressing both the push and pull factors of migration and helping finance retention policies;

8. Calls for the EU Member States themselves to build an adequate long-term health workforce plan in order to meet internal demand and minimise the negative implications for developing countries;

9. Believes that the first step in combating this trend is to provide training and better working conditions for health workers in the areas concerned, to offer incentives to encourage them to work where they are most needed and to supply them with vaccinations in anticipation of potential pandemics;

10. Calls on developing countries to restore their public and basic healthcare systems and services and for the EU to support this process through aid for the reinforcement of human and institutional capacities and infrastructure, including an improvement in working conditions for medical staff, provision of suitable medical equipment and transfer of technology;

11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Member State Heads of Government, the Heads of Government of all developing countries, and the World Health Organisation.

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European Parliament resolution on the current situation in combating violence against women and any future action (2004/2220(INI))

The European Parliament ,

ñ   having regard to the provisions in the United Nations (UN) legal instruments in the field of human rights, in particular those concerning women's rights, such as the Charter of the UN, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,

ñ   having regard to other UN instruments on violence against women, such as the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 25 June 1993(1) , the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women of 20 December 1993(2) , the Resolution on the Elimination of Domestic Violence against Women of 22 December 2003(3) , the Resolution Working towards the elimination of crimes against women committed in the name of honour of 30 January 2003(4) , the Resolution on crime prevention and criminal justice measures to eliminate violence against women of 2 February 1998(5) , the reports by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' Special Rapporteurs on violence against women, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women's General Recommendation No 19(6) ,

ñ   having regard to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995 and its resolution of 18 May 2000 on the follow-up to the Beijing Action Platform(7) ,

ñ   having regard to Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union(8) ,

ñ   having regard its resolution of 16 September 1997 on the need to establish a European Union wide campaign for zero tolerance of violence against women(9) ,

ñ   having regard to its resolution of 10 March 2005 on the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women - Platform for Action (Beijing + 10)(10) ,

ñ   having regard to its resolution of 20 September 2001 on female genital mutilation(11) ,

ñ   having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

ñ   having regard to the report of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the opinion of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (A6-0404/2005),

A.  A whereas violence against women has been defined by the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life,

B.   whereas Article 6 of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women states, "[n]othing in the present Declaration shall affect any provision that is more conducive to the elimination of violence against women that may be contained in the legislation of a State or in any international convention, treaty, or other instrument in force in a State",

C.   whereas violence occurs in many types of relationship and the definitions used in research and the cultural context vary; whereas the primary focus of this resolution is men's violence against women e.g. where the perpetrator is a man and the victim is a woman who has or has had a relationship with the perpetrator; whereas such violence represents the overwhelming majority of cases of violence in close relationships, according to three prevalence studies carried out in Finland, Sweden and Germany; whereas, although many cases of that type of violence occur in the home, the place where the violence takes place is of secondary importance,

D.   whereas men's violence against women is not only criminal but also constitutes a serious social problem; whereas men's violence against women represents a violation of human rights, notably the right to life, the right to safety, the right to dignity, and the right to physical and mental integrity; whereas men's violence against women is therefore an obstacle to the development of a democratic society,

E.   whereas men's violence against women can affect women of any age, irrespective of education, income or social position; whereas large-scale prevalence studies in Sweden, Germany and Finland have shown that at least 30-35 % of women between 16 and 67 have at one time been victims of physical or sexual violence; whereas if psychological violence is included, the proportion of women affected rises to between 45 and 50 %,

F.   whereas men's violence against women is a universal phenomenon linked to the unequal distribution of gender power, which still characterises our society; whereas inequality also contributes to the fact that men's violence against women is not sufficiently prioritised and prosecuted,

G.   whereas the kind of violence affecting women is typically perpetrated by their close relatives or by partners,

H.   whereas, in addition to taking measures to help victims of violence, there is also a need for proactive and preventive strategies aimed at the perpetrators and those at risk of becoming perpetrators of violence on the one hand and effective, proportionate, and dissuasive penalties on the other,

I.   whereas the types of violence affecting women can vary according to cultural tradition, ethnic origin, and social background; whereas female genital mutilation, so-called crimes of honour, and forced marriages are a reality in the EU,

J.   whereas men's violence against women often occurs in secret and in the home, and can do so because society does not impose adequate penalties; whereas deep-rooted historical and cultural norms often contribute to legitimising men's violence against women,

K.   whereas only a few Member States have gathered data and compiled statistics relating to the prevalence of different forms of men's violence against women, making it difficult to understand the real extent of such violence on the one hand and to draw up an efficient response at EU level on the other,

L.   whereas no detailed EU-level study has been carried out into the financial costs and social and human consequences of men's violence against women; whereas, however, it is vital to conduct such a study in order to highlight the phenomenon and combat this serious violation of human rights,

M.   whereas men's violence against women is an important factor in the lives of those women and girls who become victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, including prostitution, or other purposes; whereas surveys show that 65-90% of prostituted women have been subjected to sexual abuse in the past,

N.   whereas marginalisation and poverty are basic causes of prostitution and of increased trafficking in women,

O.   whereas men's violence against women is an obstacle to women's participation in society and the labour market and can lead to women's marginalisation and poverty,

P.   whereas there is a large number of reports showing that women are most at risk of severe violence from their partners or former partners during or shortly after separating from them,

Q.   whereas violence against mothers directly and indirectly has negative short and long-term effects on their children's emotional and mental health and can create a cycle of violence and abuse, which is perpetuated through generations,

R.   whereas, apart from the fact that women are often economically dependent on men, they frequently do not report violence against them, in particular domestic or sexual violence, because there is a lingering myth in society that they are to blame for the violence or that it is a private matter, as well as because of their desire to hold their relationship and family together; whereas women also tend not to report violence because they lack confidence in the police, the judicial system and social services,

S.   whereas the risk of men perpetrating violence against women increases in a society which does not take a sufficiently strong and clear stand against it; whereas legislation and effective enforcement are important instruments in combating violence,

T.   whereas in the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament establishing for the period 2007-2013 a framework programme on Fundamental Rights and Justice (COM(2005)0122), fighting violence against women, children and young people plays a very important role, as part of the effort to create an area of freedom, security and justice,

U.   recalling that, as stated by Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini in a speech to the European Parliament on 21 June 2005, an estimated number of at least 700-900 women die each year from intimate partner violence in the 15 old Member States and this number is likely to be underestimated,

1.  Recommends, as regards men's violence against women, the Commission and the Member States:

	a)	to regard it to be a violation of human rights, reflecting unequal gender power relations and to adopt an all-encompassing policy approach to combat it, including effective methods of prevention and punishment;
	b)	to regard men's violence against women as a structural phenomenon and as one of the main impediments to efforts to overcome inequality between women and men;
	c)	to formulate a zero-tolerance policy as regards all forms of violence against women;
	d)	to adopt a framework for cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), with a view to developing policies and practices to combat domestic violence;
	e)	to establish harmonised methodology, definitions and criteria, in cooperation with Eurostat, the Fundamental Rights Agency, and the future European Gender Institute in order to gather comparable and compatible data throughout the EU concerning men's violence against women, in particular, comprehensive studies of prevalence;
	f)	to appoint national rapporteurs in order to gather, exchange and process information and statistics on men's violence against women, including information on children growing up in violent environments, and to promote the exchange of best practice among Member States, accession and candidate countries;
	g)	to highlight in all work relating to men's violence against women how such violence affects the children;
	h)	to establish a single system of recording instances of assault by Member States' competent authorities, such as the judiciary, the police, hospitals and social services, in order to ensure that the data is recorded jointly and that greater use is made of them;
	i)	to provide appropriate education and training for professionals who are responsible for recording incidents and data relating to domestic violence in order to ensure that they carry out their duties with the required consistency;
	j)	to earmark funds for investigation into the costs of men's violence against women in the EU;
	k)	to establish the necessary means to monitor the activity and progress of the accession and candidate countries regarding treatment of women in all areas of society, and to make the safety and treatment of women in these countries a criterion for accession;
	l)	to develop programmes and surveys targeting women who are members of culturally specific communities or ethnic minority groups, with a view to obtaining an account of the specific forms of violence that these women encounter and planning appropriate methods of dealing with them;
	m)	to closely monitor human trafficking across all borders;

2.  Calls on the Member States to establish partnership schemes between the law-enforcement authorities, NGOs, victims" refuges, and other appropriate authorities and to intensify cooperation to ensure the effective implementation of laws aimed at combating men's violence against women, and to raise the awareness of officials at all levels of issues relating to men's violence against women;

3.  Urges the Member States to take appropriate measures concerning men's violence against women in their national laws, in particular:

	a)	to recognise sexual violence within marriage as a crime and to make rape within marriage a criminal offence;
	b)	not to accept any reference to cultural practices as a mitigating factor in cases of violence against women, crimes of honour or female genital mutilation;
	c)	to cooperate and exchange best practice with the authorities in countries with more experience of crimes of honour;
	d)	to ensure victims' right to safe access to justice and effective enforcement, including the provision of compensation;
	e)	to encourage the prosecution of accomplices to crimes of honour, such as any family members of the perpetrator who encouraged or ordered the crime of honour, in order to demonstrate firmly that such behaviour is unacceptable;
	f)	to take account of the fact that children who witness their mothers being battered could be regarded as victims, and thus to consider whether they should be entitled to damages in accordance with national law;
	g)	to consider the risks of joint residence orders in favour of perpetrators of violence against women and to establish effective measures that will ensure safe custody of children in cases of separation and divorce;
	h)	not to accept any references to intoxication by alcohol as a mitigating factor in cases of men's violence against women;
	i)	to combat the idea that working as a prostitute can be equated with doing a job;

4.  Calls on the Member States to take appropriate measures to ensure better protection and support of victims and those who are at risk of becoming victims of violence against women by:

	a)	providing qualified protection and legal, medical, social and psychological services and aid, including police protection;
	b)	providing proper training, in particular, psychological training, including in respect of children, to the staff of competent bodies dealing with men's violence against women, such as police officers, judicial personnel, health personnel, educators, youth and social workers and prison staff; in the event of the treatment of children in the form of talk therapy, it is particularly important that the child psychologists or therapists concerned are familiar with men's violence against women so that the father's violence against the mother and/or the child is not diminished or trivialised;
	c)	adopting a proactive, preventive and penal strategy towards the perpetrators of violence against women in order to reduce recidivism, and providing advisory services for access by the perpetrators either on their own initiative or under a court order; always carrying out adequate risk assessments in order to ensure the safety of women and any children in the process;
	d)	recognising the importance of providing support to victims? whether women or children, to help them become financially and psychologically independent from the perpetrator;
	e)	providing all necessary assistance, including transitional housing, to women and their children in cases of separation or divorce;
	f)	treating women who are victims of gender-based violence as a category entitled to priority access to community-housing projects;
	g)	providing safe shelters including sufficient financial resources;
	h)	providing a minimum income for women who have no other resources, in order to enable them to reintegrate into society in relative safety, in constant cooperation with advisory centres;
	i)	conducting specific employment action programmes for the victims of gender-based violence, so as to enable them to enter the labour market and achieve financial independence;
	j)	investigating the possibility of setting up 'multi-agencies' where victims can contact the appropriate authorities, such as representatives from the police, the public prosecutor and social and health services;
	k)	planning services and centres for the care and support of children of women who are victims of violence;
	l)	providing social and psychological support to children who have witnessed domestic violence;
	m)	providing free testing for sexually transmitted diseases in rape cases;
	n)	ensuring that all perpetrators of violence receive professional help and treatment;
	o)	providing proper protection for immigrants, especially single mothers and their children, who often have inadequate means of defence or knowledge of available resources to counter domestic violence in Member States;

5.  Calls on Member States to make use of the Daphne II Programme(12) in order to combat honour crimes in the Member States, to build and maintain more shelters for women who are victims of violence, including honour crimes, and to train experts who specialise in dealing with honour crime victims;

6.  Calls on the EU to address the problem of honour crimes, which has become an EU-wide problem with cross-border implications, and calls on Commission Vice President Frattini to follow up on his promise to organise a European conference on the issue;

7.  Calls on the Member States to act in order to lift the secrecy still surrounding men's violence against women in society, especially domestic violence by adopting measures to raise collective and individual awareness about men's violence against women;

8.  Calls on the Member States to develop public awareness and information programmes on domestic violence and to reduce the social stereotyping of the position of women in society through the education systems and the media;

9.  Calls on the Member States to take appropriate measures to stop female genital mutilation; stresses that preventing and banning female genital mutilation and prosecuting perpetrators must become a priority in all relevant EU policies and programmes; points out that immigrants residing in the Community should be aware that female genital mutilation is a serious assault on women's health and a violation of human rights; calls on the Commission in this context to devise a comprehensive strategic approach at EU level, with the aim of putting an end to the practice of female genital mutilation in the EU;

10.  Urges Member States to define acts of female genital mutilation  as an illegal act of violence against women, which constitutes a violation of their fundamental rights and a serious aggression against their physical integrity ; consequently regardless of where or in which country this act occurs against EU citizens or residents, such acts will be illegal;

11.  Calls on Member States either to implement specific legal provisions on female genital mutilation or to adopt such laws and to prosecute each person who conducts female genital mutilation;

12.  Calls for doctors who conduct genital mutilation of young women and girls not only to be prosecuted but also to have their practising licence withdrawn;

13.  Calls on the Member States to ensure that parents are held legally liable when acts of female genital mutilation occur on minors;

14.  Calls on the Member States to ensure that female genital mutilation is considered a reasonable argument for an asylum claim in order to protect the asylum seeker from inhuman treatment;

15.  Asks the Commission to declare a European Year against men's violence against women, as repeatedly requested by Parliament, and to produce a work plan to enable the phenomenon to be highlighted more clearly and provide means of speaking out against the current situation;

16.  Calls on the Commission to establish a programme entitled "Fight against violence" as a separate part of its framework programme on Fundamental Rights and Justice for the period 2007-2013;

17.  Considers it of utmost importance that reliable statistics exist regarding women's reporting of brutal or inhuman treatment to the law enforcement authorities;

18.  Regrets that, as the above-mentioned reporting is usually left unrecorded when no action is taken by law enforcement authorities, the statistics remain untrustworthy and unreliable;

19.  Calls, therefore, on the Member States to ensure that all reports by women of brutal or inhuman treatment are recorded, as well as the percentage of cases in which the law enforcement authorities took action and which types of action were used;

20.  Recalls that the burden of proof is often placed on women who are already in a disadvantaged situation;

21.  Calls on the Commission to establish a mechanism on the basis of which it would be possible to identify those Member States in which the situation of violence against women appears to be comparatively worse;

22.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, health-care professional bodies and consumer organisations.

(1) Adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, 14-25 June 1993. (2) UN General Assembly resolution 48/104. (3) UN General Assembly resolution 58/147. (4) UN General Assembly resolution 57/179. (5) UN General Assembly resolution 52/86. (6) Adopted at the CEDAW's 11th session, 1992. (7) OJ C 59, 23.2.2001, p. 258. (8) OJ C 364, 18.12.2000, p. 1. (9) OJ C 304, 6.10.1997, p. 55. (10) OJ C 320 E, 15.12.2005, p. 247. (11) OJ C 77 E, 28.3.2002, p. 126. (12) OJ L 143, 30.4.2004, p. 1.

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The European Parliament ,

-   having regard to Article 13 of the EC Treaty,

-   having regard to Articles 21 and 26 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which set out the rights of people with disabilities,

-   having regard to Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,

-   having regard to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly resolutions of 1 November 2001 on the rights of disabled people and older people in ACP countries(1) and of 21 March 2002 on health issues, young people, the elderly and people living with disabilities(2) ,

-   having regard to its resolution of 3 September 2003 on the Commission Communication "Towards a United Nations legally binding instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities" (COM(2003)0016)(3) ,

-   having regard to the UN's Millennium Development Goals (General Assembly Resolution 60/1 on the 2005 World Summit Outcome of 16 September 2005),

-   having regard to the WHO Resolution WHA 58.23 of 25 May 2005 on disability, including prevention, management and rehabilitation,

-   having regard to the UN's Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (General Assembly Resolution 48/96 of 20 December 1993),

-   having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

-   having regard to the UN's World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons (General Assembly Resolution 37/52 of 3 December 1982),

-   having regard to the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002), the African Decade of Disabled Persons (2000-2009), the New Asian Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (2003-2012), and the European Year of People with Disabilities (2003),

-   having regard to the Commission's Guidance Note on Disability and Development for EU Delegations and Services of March 2003 (Commission Guidance Note),

-   having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.   whereas people with disabilities in developing countries, in particular disabled women and children, often comprise the poorest, most disadvantaged, and most socially excluded sectors of the population, and are often excluded from development assistance; whereas the World Bank estimates that 20% of the world's poorest people are disabled,

B.   whereas the UN estimates that people with disabilities make up between 7% and 10% of any country's population, and the UN's Population Information Network estimates that, out of a of population of 800 million, almost 50 million people in Africa are disabled,

C.   whereas realising the UN's Millennium Development Goals will be impossible without explicitly and proactively including disabled people of all ages,

D.   whereas the Commission's Guidance Note stresses the need to ensure access for and inclusion of disabled people in respect of all policies and activities supported by EU delegations,

E.   whereas the Commission is involved in the negotiations on the drafting of a UN Convention on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disability (Draft UN Convention), and an early adoption of this convention would be welcome,

F.   whereas the EU's commitment to combating discrimination related to age, race, ethnicity, disability, religion, gender and sexual orientation must be a guiding principle in a rights-based approach to development,

G.   whereas malnutrition, accident, trauma, conflict, disease (whether infectious, non-infectious or congenital), and ageing all cause disability and impairment, up to half of which is preventable and directly linked to poverty,

H.   whereas commitments in respect of 'Education for All' include facilitating the equal access to education by disabled people and their families,

I.   whereas the accessibility to disabled people of buildings, in particular schools, workplaces and public buildings, is important, but planners often miss opportunities to adapt the design of the built environment to meet the needs of disabled people, especially during reconstruction after emergency relief efforts,

J.   whereas representative groups of disabled persons can and should assist and be consulted in policy development and represent the interests of disabled people on consultative bodies; whereas disabled people and their organisations have not been given sufficient opportunity to participate in the preparation of the Commission's Country Strategy Papers (CSPs),

1.  Stresses that disability issues should be reflected in the Commission's development policies and in its specific programmes developed to tackle issues of prevention, care, enablement and stigma;

2.  Believes that disability issues must be mainstreamed at all levels from policy development to implementation and evaluation, including follow-up actions to the EU's policy development statement, and the EU's action plan for Africa;

3.  Calls on the Commission to develop a detailed, technical implementation action plan to implement its Guidance Note, including guidelines on inclusive sector policies and an inclusive Project Cycle Management handbook; a training module for services and delegations; and annual reporting to Parliament and the Council;

4.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that there are appropriate resources allocated for disability-specific actions in order:

	-	to examine the extent to which the needs of disabled people are addressed in EU development cooperation measures in the fields of education, health, employment, infrastructure and poverty reduction;
	-	to undertake actions in this field based on the approaches set out by the Commission's Guidance Note;
	-	to raise awareness, among all the actors involved in EU development cooperation activities, of the issues relating to disability and the promotion and protection of the fundamental human rights of disabled people in developing countries;

5.  Calls on the Commission to include disability and people with disabilities in future EU geographical and thematic programmes under the future development cooperation instrument;

6.  Calls on the Council and the Commission to support the inclusion in the above-mentioned draft UN Convention of a separate article on international cooperation, as a necessary foundation for collaborative actions among developing countries and between developing countries and the EU;

7.  Believes that 2007, the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, should provide an opportunity for the EU to articulate its values in its external policies and actions, and calls on the Commission to bring forward a specific initiative on non-discrimination and the rights of people with disabilities in development cooperation;

8.  Calls on the Commission to participate actively in WHO-supported campaigns aimed at tackling preventable impairments such as the WHO campaign Vision 2020, aimed at eliminating preventable blindness by 2020, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the Global Strategy for Further Reducing the Leprosy Burden and Sustaining Leprosy Control Activities (2006-2010), and the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis;

9.  Calls on the Commission to include a disability component in its health policies and programmes, in particular in the areas of child health, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, ageing, HIV/AIDS, and chronic conditions;

10.  Calls on the Commission in its development policies and on national governments to promote disabled people's access to assistive technology and equal access to all health services and programmes;

11.  Calls on the Commission to focus on the prevention of disabilities, given that an estimated 100 million people globally have impairments which are caused by malnutrition and poor sanitation and which are therefore preventable, and an estimated 70% of childhood blindness in Asia and Africa could be prevented;

12.  Calls on the Commission in its development policies and on national governments to help public authorities detect disabilities at as early a stage as possible and to integrate community-based rehabilitation programmes into the primary healthcare sector;

13.  Insists that education for children and young people with disabilities be an integral part of the goal of achieving universal primary education, including early intervention services and support and training for the families of disabled children; stresses UNESCO's broad concept of education, which aims at full inclusion in society;

14.  Calls on the Commission and the EU delegations to support vocational training, job placements and business development services through community-based projects that are inclusive of disabled people, and to encourage developing countries to ratify the International Labour Organization's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983;

15.  Supports fully, given the effects especially on child victims, the global battle to eradicate anti-personnel landmines and other related controversial weapon systems such as cluster submunitions; calls on the Council and Commission to undertake urgent and decisive measures against countries that still manufacture, sell or use landmines; calls on the Council and the Commission to prioritise landmine clearance in developing countries;

16.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that new building projects funded by the EU systematically incorporate International Organization for Standardization standards on accessible design, in order to make buildings accessible to all;

17.  Calls on the Commission's delegations to make deliberate efforts to facilitate the process of establishing or strengthening disabled people's organisations and to ensure that disabled people's organisations are involved in the consultation and formulation of future CSPs;

18.  Calls on the Commission to make sure that disabled people are no longer excluded from EU development cooperation programmes and to actively seek their inclusion in all EU poverty eradication programmes;

19.  Requests the Commission and national governments to obtain data on the proportion and status (including age and gender) of disabled people who are in poverty, in education and in employment or self-employed and on the impact of projects and policies on disabled people in the fields of education, health, employment and poverty reduction;

20.  Calls on researchers, including medical and socio-economic researchers, to redouble and harmonise their efforts to generate good data and research, as these are the key to moving disability up the economic, social welfare and development agenda;

21.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the ACP-EU Council of Ministers, the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, the UN, UNESCO and the African Union.

(1) OJ C 78, 2.4.2002, p. 64. (2) OJ C 231, 27.9.2002, p. 55. (3) OJ C 76 E, 25.3.2004, p.231.

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