Commissioner Nielson's speech in view of the World Food Summit

At the World Food Summit in 1996, participants, including the European Commission, pledged their commitment to halving the number of undernourished people by 2015. This target has been reconfirmed by the Millennium Declaration adopted by the United Nations in September 2000. Current information indicates however, that although considerable efforts have been made in many countries to reduce poverty and improve food security, hunger is not yet being reduced fast enough to meet the World Food Summit Plan of Action.

In a world of increasing prosperity and plentiful food supplies, it is unacceptable that close to 800 million people still suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Eliminating hunger is one of the most important challenges facing humanity, and can only be achieved through concerted action by national governments and the international community.

This has led the FAO to convene Heads of State and Government to the World Food Summit: five years later to review the progress made in achieving the 1996 goals and to reconfirm the political commitment to the fight against poverty.

The Commission has made considerable efforts in line with the 1996 World Food Summit commitments and its Plan of Action. Poverty reduction has become the overall objective of the Community development policy and food security objectives are being tackled by a broad range of policies and instruments. The forthcoming World Food Summit provides an opportunity to renew the Commission's commitment, to present our views and to report on progress made.

The Summit is to be seen in the broader international context of a series of high level events such as the least developed countries Conference, Doha, Monterrey and Johannesburg providing fresh impetus and new opportunities to make progress towards sustainable development. Food security is a major dimension and indicator for poverty reduction and is a key element in this context.

The Summit will be able to build on the commitments and results of the various international processes and should more firmly integrate food security objectives into the broader poverty reduction agenda and strengthen the links to sustainable natural resources management, environment and hence to sustainable development.

The outcome of the Summit will be a political declaration, negotiated among the FAO membership. The European Commission together with the Member States are preparing jointly a position. The declaration will call for a strengthening of political will and for identifying adequate measures to accelerate the implementation of the Plan of Action. The concluding negotiations with FAO members will take place during the Committee on Food Security, from the 6 to 8 June, where the final text of the declaration will be agreed.

As a last point I would like to reiterate the political will of the European Community to support realistic and sustainable recommendations at the World Food Summit to meet the challenges of the fight against hunger both at national and international level. This Summit will provide another political opportunity to pursue our dialogue with the developing countries and demonstrate our solidarity with respect to the less-developed world.

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• Résolution du Parlement européen sur les conclusions du Sommet mondial de l'alimentation des NU (4/7/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - World Food Summit: Five years later (14/6/2002)
• Commissioner Nielson's Speech at the World Food Summit (12/6/2002)
• President Prodi's Speech at the World Food Summit (10/6/2002)
• Commissioner Nielson's speech on WSSD (18/4/2002)
• Commissioner Nielson's speech on global sustainability (8/2/2002)