Definiciones Conceptuales

The resolution described in the preceding section was part of a package of various resolutions identifying the problems of the developing countries at the start of the last decade of the twentieth century.

One of the most serious problems for the vast majority of developing countries was indebtedness, although the resolution specifically devoted to this problem378 _concentrated

essentially on the ACP countries and, within this group, on the African States. The resolution expressed satisfaction at the specific provisions laid down by the Lomé IV Convention, but regretted the delay encountered in the Council by the Commission’s proposal to write off the debts of the Associated States.

As regards the least advanced countries – the ones hardest hit – bilateral support should be eliminated and they should be provided with aid in the form of donations, in line moreover with a declaration by the G7 in London recognising the need for special measures for the least developed countries in the specific field of their debts. More generally, the alleviating measures should be accompanied by the creation of new financial mechanisms taking account of social, environmental and democratic criteria. The resolution also raised the

378 _{EP resolution of 14 May 1992 on the indebtedness of developing countries, OJ C 150, 15.6.1992, p. 252 following on from the report}

question of corrupt regimes and called for measures to freeze and seize the assets of corrupt rulers.

The pressing demand made by the industrialised countries for the repayment of debt by the developing countries in the aftermath of the economic crisis suffered in the early 1970s raised the question of structural adjustment in the debtor countries, which had not previously been urged to review their production structures. A resolution on this topic379_,

approved at the same time as its predecessors, completed the package. The basic approach of this document was to advocate long-term balanced development compatible with the resources and identity of the countries’ peoples. To achieve this objective, the developing countries’ production and also political structures needed to be upgraded. This in turn, as affirmed by the accompanying report, called for economic democracy at international level,

since a series of variables determining such adjustment was beyond the control of the developing countries: the regulatory mechanism for the management of their resources, the prices of the raw materials exported and the interest rates on debt.

In the light of these premises, the resolution stated the conditions for cooperation that would help achieve structural adjustment: social compatibility, i.e. the integration into the adjustment programmes of their social impact; environmental compatibility, i.e. an assessment of the environmental impact of projects; and political and institutional compatibility, i.e. the capacity, to be achieved step by step, of the political and administrative apparatus of developing countries to regulate their own adjustment.

Structural adjustment, however, was in any case required to ensure the developing countries’ survival in the short term. Two measures were needed for that purpose, one medium-term and the other long-term. The first consisted of easing the burden of debt, which required a willingness and commitment of the industrialised countries to find the necessary resources; the second was an in-depth review of the cooperation policies, transforming them into genuine instruments for human promotion, serving the interests of the populations of the target countries, which needed to take part in decisions on the prices of their raw materials.

What was required of the developing countries was a review of their economic and financial policies, to include reducing their arms expenditure by the equivalent of 5.3% of their gross domestic product, bringing in measures to curb the brain drain and flight of capital, combating corruption, streamlining their top-heavy administrative apparatus, reforming their public sector undertakings, many of which were operating at a heavy loss, and lastly embarking on a genuine democratisation of their political and institutional systems.

Finally, the resolution tackled the question of economic democracy at international level, indicating the instruments needed to achieve it: a reform of certain international organisations such as the UN and the Bretton Woods Agreements, whose policies on structural adjustment were strongly criticised.

379 _{EP resolution of 14 May 1992 on structural adjustment in developing countries, OJ C 150, 15.6.1992, p. 243 following on from the}

An economic recovery programme proposed by the Commission to the Council, not subject to formal consultation of Parliament, could be regarded as a response to the need to ensure the economic survival of the developing countries in crisis situations, especially – although not exclusively – the African nations, without distinguishing between those that had or had not signed the Lomé Convention. Crisis situations were considered to be those generated by various events, whether natural, such as drought, or man-made, such as wars.

This would entail an appropriation of a billion ECU, three-fifths originating from the Community and two-fifths from the Member States, and would be in addition to a more modest programme, amounting to ECU 100 million, for Sub-Saharan Africa only, already approved by the Council out of the Development Fund. This was directed towards funding the modernisation of production by the purchase of plant and machinery, the rehabilitation of infrastructure, social stabilisation measures and restoring the functional capacity of the institutional and administrative machinery.

Outside of a consultation procedure, Parliament delivered its opinion by an own-initiative resolution380 _{welcoming the programme, stating that it would be appropriate to position}

measures of this kind in an international context and, given the frequency of crisis situations, to set up a permanent intervention instrument. Regarding the content of the programme, Parliament held that priority should be attached to agricultural production and food security, and that local human and financial resources should be mobilised. The question of structural adjustment arose again a few years later in the course of a consultation procedure on a proposal for a regulation on the subject, put forward with a view to launching an emergency plan for Africa and creating a specific budget heading for this kind of measure, the first of which was strongly requested by the Joint Assembly. Parliament welcomed the initiative381_{, making a few amendments, essentially designed to}

make the emergency measures consistent with the medium- and long-term development measures, and to enable them to be launched in as timely a manner as possible, even when the crisis and emergency situations calling for them were ongoing.

The accompanying report discussed the definition of rehabilitation and reconstruction without arriving at a precise wording, although based on the same proposal it accepted that the two types of measure were linked, and that the latter should be defined according to the requirements of the former. In actual fact, a definition of rehabilitation was arrived at with reference to the objectives: to put the population in a position where it could contribute by its own efforts to restabilising the economy and living conditions, so as to be able to dispense with humanitarian aid as rapidly as possible.

380 _{EP resolution of 25 October 1993 on the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament on a special}

rehabilitation support programme in developing countries, OJ C 329, 6.12.1993, p. 77, following on from the report of the Committee on Development... with the same title. Doc. A3-329/93. Rap: Kostopoulos.

381 _{EP legislative resolution of 15 December 1995 embodying the European Parliament’s opinion on the proposal for a Council}

Regulation on rehabilitation and reconstruction operations in developing countries, OJ C 174, 22.1.1996, p. 445, following on from the report of the Committee on Development... with the same title. Doc. A4-301/95. Rap: Andrews.

GeneRAl developmenT meAsURes 6. Regional economic integration

Regional cooperation, which began in the framework of the Lomé Convention as an instrument to promote trade between neighbouring countries, should be distinguished from regional integration: the former is collaboration among states in the same geographical area, typically with the aim of reducing non-political obstacles (such as transport difficulties) to the movement of goods, services, capital and persons, without a supranational structure, whereas integration is a narrower form of collaboration whose aim is to reduce the political barriers to such movement and occurs in many cases (although not necessarily) through supranational structures.

Integration was the subject of detailed consideration by the Commission, which devoted a specific communication to the subject in the second half of the 1990s, when the globalisation of the world economy was accelerating and free trade agreements were proliferating; it was no coincidence that integration was defined as the instrument of a strategy designed

to coordinate economic policies and improve the prospects for sustainable development.

The European Parliament welcomed the communication382_{, with certain reservations on}

the pre-eminently economic approach, expressed more firmly in the report than in the resolution. The report doubted that, even in the case of the least developed countries, regional integration could be said to be a starting point for better global integration; it contrasted this concept with the objectives of the Community’s development policy, citing those of aid to the least developed countries and the campaign against poverty, which should also be goals of regional integration.

The resolution took up this approach, stating the basic elements for the European Union’s support for regional integration: an understanding of the regional characteristics of the developing world; an assessment of the preconditions for integration in the various regions; and a realistic definition of the timetable for integration.

The resolution also expressed concern at the excessive number of regional organisations in Africa and at the sometimes contradictory and overlapping mandates of these regional organisations, which led to waste and inefficiency, calling on the Commission to promote coordination of the regional organisations in the framework of its relations with the states belonging to those organisations.