EU Policies and Developing Countries (Hansard, 20 January 1997)

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)
My Lords, the European Community's trade and development co-operation policies towards developing countries are brought together in the Lomé Convention and in other formal agreements with particular countries and regions. We shall continue to press for greater coherence in this area, including improved access for developing country products and further reform of internal policies such as the CAP.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. Does she not agree that as a matter of urgency we must bring together the triplicated aid administration within the European Union into one directorate which can be clearly accountable and efficient? Does she also not agree that it is high time that the EU aid programme was genuinely poverty focused, both geographically and within individual countries, and that trade preferences were geared to helping the poor; to promoting sustainable development; and, perhaps above all, to 377 ensuring that the common fisheries policy and the common agricultural policy, with subsidised exports being dumped on the third world and undercutting local agricultural production, were reformed once and for all so that they work in harmony with the aid programme and not against it?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, the answer to each of the noble Lord's questions is yes. Perhaps I may add that it is crucial that we get three things right: the framework for European development assistance, its allocation, and the management arrangements. I have pressed for that for a very long while, including in a speech last October at a Bradford University conference on future EC policy. We have put it on the agenda for next month's informal Development Council so that we can discuss the coherence which is so vital and which underlies all of the noble Lord's questions.

§ Viscount Waverley
My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is trade through increased inward investment, not aid, that should drive both donors and recipients? Is that a likely approach for any successor Lomé Convention?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I hope that that is so. A substantial work programme on trade liberalisation, particularly through the WTO, has been agreed. However, we need far better trade arrangements under the successor to Lomé IV. A Commission Green Paper on EU relations with the ACP post-2000 sets out various possibilities for future trade arrangements and is now being considered by member states. My concern has always been that some countries within the Community do not accept that access for developing country products is one of the most valuable ways of helping those countries to stand on their own feet. All British aid is devoted to that end.

§ Lord Stoddart of Swindon
My Lords, can the noble Baroness inform the House what proportion of the total British aid budget is channelled through the European Union? Is the Minister satisfied with the direction that that aid takes and that a disproportionate amount does not go to eastern European countries instead of deserving third world countries?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, just over 50 per cent. of aid is channelled through multilateral institutions. I am satisfied that there is now better management. We have put a great deal of effort into achieving better management of spending by Brussels of member states' money. We have made monitoring and evaluation systems and personnel available to the European Commission. We have tried to work with the Commission in the best interests of developing countries. As far as concerns the split between the emerging countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and the rest of the world, we have insisted that the European Union concentrate its aid where it can do most good—on the poorest—and that means the 378 poorest within countries. I believe that the balance is about right, but it is something that must be watched. I have never made any secret of that.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, can the noble Baroness confirm that all of the nations in the European Union make a reasonable contribution to the policies referred to in the Question?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I believe that most countries try their best. Some countries with wide bilateral programmes have greater experience than others with limited bilateral programmes, and have a better chance of succeeding, but we try to help one another.

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, does my noble friend agree it is ridiculous that Britain should give aid to a country like Zimbabwe which produces very good tobacco but hamper its trade in tobacco by subsidising the growth of very inferior tobacco in Europe?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, that is one of the reasons why we need greater coherence in all Union policies. The British aid programme has not provided any assistance for tobacco growing for many years. We believe that there must be rationalisation of the kinds of inconsistencies that my noble friend has identified.

§ Lord Rea
My Lords, can the noble Baroness tell the House what proportion of our bilateral and EU aid to the poorest countries of the world goes to the poorest people, that is, the social sector, to give them the help that they really need so that they can stand on their own feet? I am referring to health and education. Has that aid gone up or gone down in real terms rather than simply as a proportion of our diminishing bilateral aid?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, approximately 70 per cent. of British bilateral aid goes to the poorest countries. We have increased the amount spent on primary education, health and family planning. I cannot give the noble Lord the exact percentages at the Dispatch Box, but I will drop him a line on the subject. Within the particular country we seek to choose our projects with non-governmental organisations to target those who can benefit most. Undoubtedly, they will be the poorest. However, it is a very complicated matrix and generalised answers do not always provide the detail of how much is being done in primary education and particularly in family planning and primary health care—which are the essentials—together with water conservation and simple sanitation systems. We intend to continue to concentrate on those areas and persuade our colleagues in other member states to do likewise.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, can the Minister say more about the co-ordination of policy within the European Union? There are very disturbing reports that the common fisheries policy is undermining fishing communities in third world countries which are utterly 379 dependent on fishing for their livelihood. Does the Minister agree it is absolutely mad that British taxpayers should pay money through the aid programme to support people who are victims of the common agricultural policy by the dumping of food on the third world?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, so far as the common fisheries policy is concerned, there is an EC third country fisheries agreement. Those policies should always be consistent with the Community's wider policies towards developing countries. As the noble Lord will know, a committee of this House is now studying EC third country fisheries agreements and will publish a report shortly. We look forward to that report. We believe it will help us make the case that we have already been making in the Commission.
We asked the Commission for a proposal for the reform of the beef regime, and indeed the dairy regime, this year. We await that proposal. We also feel it absolutely crucial to stop the nonsense of subsidised exports of beef to southern Africa which impede local beef production and exports, particularly in Namibia. All those matters are being managed. However, it is quite a battle to make the whole business coherent. That is why I made the comment about holding a discussion on coherence at the informal Development Council at the beginning of next month.