McAvan: “keeping the promises we all signed up to”
“The challenge for the new European Parliament […] is to make sure that the EU and our global partners keep the promises we all signed up to”, writes Linda McAvan who chaired the European Parliament DEVE committee for the last five years to her successor, the Swedish MEP Tomas Tobé, in her letter published in ECDPM special edition of “Great Insights”.
“Dear future Chair of the development committee”, this is how Ms McAvan starts her letter full of advices. Listing the most recent achievements, she refers to the signing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Addis Ababa agenda on financing for development or the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The former MEP gives institutional tips to MEPs: “I hope DEVE will defend what was agreed by this Parliament, namely proper funding for development, limits on diverting aid into migration and security policy and putting the SDGs and pro-poor policies at the heart of the EU’s external policy.”
She also explicitly asks them to “open negotiations with the Council on the new Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI)”.19
On climate change and reproductive health rights, she doesn’t hesitate to name and shame the Trump administration.
The two UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) “give the EU the opportunity to show real leadership on the SDGs and to defend the concept of multilateralism” she later writes. No doubt that the presence of the PLATFORMA delegation with 17 EU local and regional elected-officials this week in New York is supporting that!
Ms McAvan also mentions the key files on which PLATFORMA took position and will continue to do so: “While Africa is important, we must not neglect our partnerships with other developing countries. A replacement for the Cotonou agreement, with our ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) partners, will come back to the table for ratification by DEVE and the European Parliament in the autumn.”
And if PLATFORMA could add one point, we would just recommend Tomas Tobé to defend the role of towns and regions in all development policies.
ECPM is the European Centre for Development Policy Management. Its Great Insights magazine offers a quick and accessible summary of cutting-edge analysis on international cooperation and Europe-Africa relations. It includes an independent overview of analysis and commentary from a wide variety of experts and high-level officials.
