Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt on Monday appealed to South African President Thabo Mbeki to draft an ambitious and far-reaching political declaration for the conclusion the Johannesburg World Summit.
The summit’s Plan of Implementation that had been agreed to, particularly on market access and the phasing out of agricultural subsidies, was ”well below the expectations of developing countries”.
”We must go further, we must grasp the opportunity, and we must do this in the political declaration.
”I propose you (Mbeki) draft a political declaration that is much stronger and more ambitious than the plan of action before us,” he told assembled world leaders at the final three-day session of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
Negotiators, who have been debating behind close doors for more than a week, had by early on Monday reached agreement on all issues except targets for introducing the use of renewable energy sources.
Their decisions would make up the action plan, which together with the political declaration form the two documents scheduled to be adopted at the conclusion of the summit on Wednesday.
Developing countries have been calling for a commitment from Europe and the United States to cut assistance offered to their farmers, but the consensus reached merely states that the issue would be dealt with within World Trade Organisation talks.
Verhofstadt said those at Monday’s meeting had heard his colleagues from the European Union speaking of their commitments to reduce the subsidies and open markets to developing countries.
There was, therefore, no reason then why this should not be put into the summit’s implementation document.
”Lets put it on paper… rather than have vague references to it in the plan of action. Let us not leave here with a vague commitment… this will only gain the mistrust of young people for us.”
Without a reduction in subsidies and debt relief poor nations would not be able to break their cycle of poverty, and without more access to developed country markets they would be excluded from development.
”If we don’t get rid of subsidies we will banish them from their own markets,” he said. – Sapa