EU Presidency Statement - Groups of Countries in Special Situations

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union, the Candidate Countries, Bulgaria, Croatia*, Romania and Turkey, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

The sustainable development of the Least Developed Countries and the Landlocked Developing Countries is at the heart of our development activities. For the EU those are part and parcel of the broader development agenda, specifically our commitment to fully implement the Millenium Declaration and achieve the Millenium Development Goals. We are convinced that poverty eradication and the improvement of quality of life in developing countries will be dependent on our success in addressing the problems of the most vulnerable in the world.

Least Developed Countries

The European Union hosted the Third UN Conference on least Developed Countries in Brussels in 2001. We have a special sense of ownership of its outcome and remain strongly committed to the implementation of the BPOA.

The EU thanks the Secretary-General for the report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010 (which has already been discussed during the last substantive session of ECOSOC). The EU recognizes the efforts made to produce a more analytical and results-oriented report and encourages the continuation of this practice.

The EU would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the issues and the recommendations.

The Millenium Declaration highlights the necessity to translate conference outcomes such as the BPOA into nationally owned and driven development strategies, including into poverty reduction strategy papers. We welcome in this regard the completion of the three new PRSPs in 2004, from Bangladesh, Burundi and Nepal.

The EU stresses that good governance is essential for sustainable development. Sound economic policies, solid democratic institutions responsive to the needs of the people and improved infrastructure are the basis for sustained economic growth, poverty eradication and employment creation. Freedom, peace and security, domestic stability, respect for human rights, including the right to development, and the rule of law, gender equality, market-oriented policies, and an overall commitment to just and democratic societies are also essential and mutually reinforcing.

Trade is an engine to economic growth and development. The EU remains fully committed to an universal, open, equitable, rules-based and non-discriminatory trading system and a succesful Doha Development Round. This summer important progress has been made towards a succesful conclusion of the Doha Development Round which would substantially stimulate development worldwide. The EU in 2001 introduced the Everything But Arms market access scheme for LDCs, providing duty- and quota-free market access for all LDCs exports to the EU. The EU also provides trade related assistance to support countries efforts at making use of the opportunities offered by market opening and their integration of trade into national development strategies.



*Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process

In April 2004, the EU adopted an Action Plan on agricultural commodities, dependence and poverty and an EU-Africa partnership on cotton was agreed in July. Both should benefit many LDCs will benefit from. Having already abolished export subsidies and tarrifs on cotton, the EU has also agreed on a reform ot its cotton regime, that will significantly reduce trade-distorting support and improve coherence with the EC's development policy.
The EU combined is the largest provider of ODA world wide and also provides substantial debt relief. Under the Barcelona commitments all EU member States have reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the ODA goal of 0.7 %. The EU has made a collective commitment to achieve an EU average ODA of 0.39% of GNI by 2006. With regard to LDCs specifically, the EU achieved the goal of 0.15 to 0.20 % of GNP. The recent UNCTAD LDC report notes that, in real terms, net aid inflows to the LDCs as a group expanded by 36% between 2000 and 2002. This upward trend is linked to the effort of donors to concentrate international assistance more on the poorest countries. The share of total ODA disbursements going to LDCs rose to 28% in 2002.

We furthermore remain committed to the objective of the Rome Declaration on Harmonisation. With 25 member states, we will ensure that, at the country level, our collective ODA is made more effective in order to reduce transition costs on our partners. We aim to make a substantive contribution to the Second International High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Paris in 2005.

The EU would also like to take this opportunity to make reference to the good progress we have made with our pratners, especially Benin on smooth transition for LDCs graduating from the list of LDCs.

LandLocked Developing Countries

The EU welcomes the consideration of the very first report of the SG on progress made in the implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action. The outcome of the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries held in Almaty in 2003 shows our mutual commitment to address the needs and problems of landlocked countries.

We recognize that lack of territorial access to the sea and remoteness and isolation from the world markets are among the main causes of the relative poverty in landlocked developing countries. The EU believes that efficient transit systems, transit policy reforms, competition between different modes of transport, financial and technical assistance for the improvement of infrastructure as well as the maintenance of existing facilities are essential in improving the situation of landlocked developing countries. The EU therefore encourages landlocked and transit countries to consider giving priority to the establishment thereof in their development planning and budget allocations, including in their PRSPs.

One of the main objectives of the Almaty Plan of Action is to increase the participation of LLDCs in world trade. Liberalization of world trade can play a crucial role in achieving the MDGs and the EU, as stated, is convinced that progress will be made, including on services, rules and agricultural and non-agricultural products, in the Doha round. As a key part of the Doha round, the recent launching of negotiations on trade facilitation, including explicitly on the clarification and improvement of WTO rules on transit, offers a golden opportunity to negotiate new provisions that will benefit, first and foremost, LLDCs.

The most important part of the work undertaken in Almaty has now started with the implementation of the Plan of Action. South-south and regional cooperation are crucial. Regional and sub-regional organizations are playing an important role in promoting economic activity, specifically in strenghtening regional cooperation initiatives and promoting agreements between transit and landlocked developing countries. In this regard, the EU strongly supports NEPAD as a framework for regional transport development.

In this context, the donor community has an important responsibility as well. The EU already provides, through its Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), financial and technical assistance for sustainable policies and strategies, and for transport infrastructure and services, such as roads, railways, waterways, and multimodal regional network systems.

The EU thanks the Office of the High Representative for the least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and SIDS for the guidance that it has given through the preparation of the Roadmap towards the implementation of the Almaty Conference, which was endorsed by the Inter-agency meeting of the United Nations in February. Coherent and coordinated assistance to LLDCs is essential to the full implementation of the Almaty Action Programme.

The EU is supportive of the Ministerial communiqué of landlocked developing countries that was adopted on the occasion of UNCTAD XI as well as of the statement at the last Ministerial Meeting in New York chaired by Laos. UNCTAD, in close co-operation with other relevant organisations of the UN-system, has an important role to play, in particular through its technical co-operation programmes. The Sao Paulo consensus states that 'UNCTAD should enhance its work on the special problems of LDCs, SIDS and LLDCs and the related special problems and challenges faced by transit developing countries as well as structurally weak, vulnerable and small economies'. We will give full support to our UN partners in these efforts.

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