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EU Emphasizes World Summit Role - Globalization - Global Policy Forum EU Emphasizes World Summit Role
By John Fraser
Business Day, Johannesburg
January 30, 2002
THE European Union (EU) development commissioner Poul Nielson has underlined the importance of the forthcoming world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg in August, and has called for the event to help social advances catch up with the economic aspects of globalisation. The summit is expected to be the largest United Nations (UN) gathering yet and is due to attract tens of thousands of delegates.
In a speech in India earlier this week, Nielson described the summit as "an important international event". "Increased development assistance and more trade alone will not provide sustainable development," he warned. "Ten years after Rio, sustainable development is as important as ever. The Johannesburg summit is an opportunity to reinforce the sense of a global community."
He explained that while economic progress had raced ahead, international institutions and relationships had failed to keep pace.
"The global spread of the market economy has deepened interdependence. This has made countries vulnerable to shocks engendered elsewhere. Politics is lagging behind. Politics and governance should not stop the market but we must make an effort to catch up and to insist on some basic priorities market economy yes, market society no."
Nielson argued that many institutions were battling to reach key developmental targets, but "many of these institutions have no teeth". They are chronically underfunded and some are seen as illegitimate.
"In Johannesburg we should insist on institutional reinforcement and increased predictable funding. Legitimacy and effectiveness of the global governance system depend on the capacity for all countries to participate. We need more inclusive international fora. Developing countries must feel adequately represented."
He said that one way to achieve that could be to re-examine ideas like the establishment of a new G-5 body, composed of representatives of different regions in the world, or the formation of a UN economic security council. "But it must have powers beyond those of the UN general assembly," he stressed. "We have a recipe for achieving a unity of purpose, which at the same time is respectful of national sovereignty of both large and small countries it's called the community method. This method based on common institutions allows member countries, large and small, to contribute on an equal footing to carry out a joint project.
"The globalised world suffers a major deficit of governance. Addressing these structural deficiencies would greatly help improve the impact of national and international policies to achieve sustainable development objectives. Climate change, poverty, disease and terrorism affect the interests of the global community at large. No country not even the largest and not even the nuclear powers - is invulnerable to shocks engendered elsewhere. In the face of these challenges, the creation of transnational communities of interest' should now be easier to construe than in the past.
"I am convinced that our (EU) development co-operation programme, but also other (European) community instruments like our programme on science and technology co-operation, can help in building these communities."
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