Negotiators on Friday pinned their hopes on political horse-trading to resolve 14 outstanding issues in an action plan meant for adoption at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
”In order to make sure that we end with something that is fair and balanced… there is good reason for what you call horse trading,” European Union Commissioner Poul Nielson told reporters at the summit in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Informal contact groups have, since last week, been battling to sort out sticking points in the action plan to diminish global poverty without destroying the environment.
The WSSD got underway on Monday, and will culminate in a meeting of 109 heads of state next week. This meeting will hopefully see the adoption of the plan.
EU President Hans Christian Schmidt said on Friday that important issues such as sanitation, renewable energy and human rights had not yet been agreed upon.
”It is appropriate to feel a sense of urgency. The summit so far has results. It is the speed of the process we cannot be satisfied with,” he said.
”If the problems cannot be solved at a technical level, we are prepared to solve them at a political level.”
Schmidt said EU representatives held discussions with South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma until 2am on Friday.
”We start today (Friday) with the political negotiations. It is now up to the politicians.”
Schmidt reiterated the EU’s insistence on a sanitation target to provide for cutting by half the number of people without adequate sanitation by 2015.
The United States opposes the adoption of a target.
Schmidt said: ”It is difficult to understand how countries can disagree. We need a timebound target, not a soft recommendation.”
He welcomed a chemicals agreement reached on Thursday night, which accepted the aim of minimising the adverse effects resulting from the way in which chemicals were used by 2020.
”The real breakthrough lies in the timebound target.”
The EU on Friday stuck to its guns on another point of contention — the reduction of subsidies for agricultural and other products.
Developing countries want an agreement on a cut in subsidies in the WSSD while the EU contends the matter should be finalised at the next ministerial round of the World Trade Organisation.
”We have already committed ourselves to this at the previous WTO meeting. The discussions at this summit only add to the impetus for cutting subsidies. We are moving in that direction,” Nielson said. – Sapa