9 Amendments of Olle SCHMIDT related to 2012/2059(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 a (new)
Citation 3 a (new)
- having regard to the outcome document on the OECD high level meeting on Aid Effectiveness in Busan December 2011, where partnership and effectiveness are key elements;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Court's report and its overall conclusion that EU development aid for food security in sub-Saharan Africa is mostly effective and it makes an important contribution to the progress towards achieving food security in partner countries which not yet have a sustainable and secure agricultural sector; notes however, that according to the Court, there is scope for significant improvement in a number of areas;
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Deplores that for the 10th EDF food security, agriculture and rural development have been selected for less partner countries as a focal sector than for the 9th EDF and that several food-insecure countries received little or no EU development aid in this area; agrees with the Court that this is inconsistent with the critical situation as regards MDG1 and the increased priority that the EDF was expected to give to food security; calls on the Commission and Member States to give a much greater attention to this area when drawing up the EDF country strategy papers (CSPs) and to allocate more funding for this purpose; deplores the decrease in development aid from Member States and that only Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden exceed the commitment to give 0,7 % of GNP to development assistance;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Deplores that despite a strong economic growth one fourth of the population in sub-Saharan Africa still suffers from malnutrition, points out that the region has the technology, the knowledge and the natural recourses to change this; stresses that peace and political stability is essential since access to land and markets, property rights and education allows increased influence and accountability of governments and of public authorities;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses the importance of strengthening the link between relief, rehabilitation and development in order to ensure the continuityeffectiveness of aid; reiterates the importance of allocating an appropriate share of EU overseas development assistance (ODA) to the agriculture sector; regrets that there has been a dramatic reduction in the level of development aid allocated to agriculture since the 1980s and calls on the Commission to prioritise agriculture in its development aid, including assistance to farmers in accessing markets; stresses in this context the need to improve coherence between the CAP, trade policpoints out that development assistance is part of a larger context where trade, remittances and other sources of income are today more important than the total OAD payments for most developing countries, and EU development policy objectivethat the CAP hinders a free and faire trade with accessing markets;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses that the whole food chain from farm to fork must be addressed in order to enhance resistance and resilience of the agricultural sector; believes that long term political commitments by governments in sub-Saharan Africa are necessary for reducing the vulnerability of the agricultural sector; points out that temporary subsidies in the form of seed in relation to extreme weather conditions can serve as an important safety net for small scale farmers and families who would otherwise be severely affected; stresses the importance of early warnings and preventive work on sanitation, seed and feed for animals; deplores that violence and insecurity is a large obstacle for a food secure future;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses the need to refocus at European and global level on food policy beyond food aid, inter-donor and donor-recipient cooperation with enhanced local partnership as well as the crucial role of partner countries in providing the basic requirements for any significant progress in this sector, such as internal peace and investment in rural infrastructure; further stresses that long-term social and economic development requires sustainable sources of income other than aid; considers that free and fair trade relations between Europe and developing countries in line with WTO principles is key for strengthening food security and accelerating human development in sub- Saharan Africa;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Is deeply concerned at the Court's finding that nutrition has been neglected and finds this is worrying since malnutrition has extremely harmful consequences in particular if it occurs during pregnancy and the first two years of life leading to irreversible damage; points out that malnutrition is an obstacle to human development, inflicting irreversible damage on individuals and imposing large economic and social losses on countries; welcomes the resolve of the Commission expressed in its Communication on an EU policy framework to assist developing countries in addressing food security challenges (COM(2010)0127) to integrate the nutritional dimension into EU programmes; reiterates its call on the Commission to draw up a specific Communication on this dimension and to integrate sound and multi-sectoral nutrition strategies into its development policy; points out that one of the most critical and cost-effective interventions is empowering of woman, a far-reaching way to help households priorities healthcare and child nutrition;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. WelcomNotes the Court's finding that EU interventions have been in general well designed and achieve most of their intended results, although oftenbut regrets that the quality of objectives were variable and difficult to measure due to the absence of performance indicators and the sustainability of results were questionable in half of the audited interventions; calls on the Commission to set more realistic and measurable objectives for the interventions and to improve their definition in the General budget support (GBS) programmes, where special attention should be given to interventions encouraging entrepreneurship among the growing young populations and interventions addressing the discrimination of women in the agricultural sector;