SOMMAIRE / TABLE OF CONTENT / ÍNDICE / ÍNDEX:

1. MED Forum News

• Conférence Méditerranéenne: La Participation des ONGs de la Méditerranée dans les Programmes Nationaux de Lutte contre la Désertification et l'Érosion. Usages des sols et développement durable en Méditerranée.

• MED Forum sign on the Joint NGO Statement on The EC Sustainability Impact Assesment of WTO trade liberalisation.

• MED Forum for the protection of the hawksbill turtle.

• MED Forum will participate to the International Conference Strategic challenges for sustainable European Tourism in the XXI century to be held on Porto, 13 - 14 Abril 2000.

1. MED Forum News

• Conférence Méditerranéenne: La Participation des ONGs de la Méditerranée dans les Programmes Nationaux de Lutte contre la Désertification et l'Érosion. Usages des sols et développement durable en Méditerranée.

Conférence Méditerranéenne

LA PARTICIPATION DES ONG DE LA MÉDITERRANÉE DANS LES PROGRAMMES NATIONAUX DE LUTTE CONTRE LA DÉSERTIFICATION ET LA SECHERESSE

Usages des sols et développement durable en Méditerranée

* * *

Conférence des ONG de la Méditerranée,

organisée par MED Forum.

Murcie (Espagne), du 16 au 18 juin 2000

Ministère des Affaires Étrangères d’Espagne

CCD

Convention de Barcelone (PAM-CMDD)

Autres institutions espagnoles publiques ou privées

MED Forum

GEF

Aguas de Barcelona

• MED Forum sign on the Joint NGO Statement on The EC Sustainability Impact Assesment of WTO trade liberalisation.

The undersigned NGOs welcome the decision of the European Commission to undertake a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) of the impacts of trade negotiations at the WTO. It is important for the European Commission and EU member states to develop a common methodology for SIAs, as these will inevitably become essential for improving transparency and accountability in EU trade policy-making. Being the first time that the sustainability impacts of an international trade agreement have been reviewed in the EU, we recognise the efforts made by the Commission to overcome the inherent complexity of such an undertaking.

From our perspective carrying out SIAs is a necessary first step to ensure: 1) that the EU’s negotiating position at the WTO is conducive to sustainable development; 2) the overall coherence of the EU’s external objectives in the fields of trade, poverty alleviation and environmental protection; and 3) that ultimately WTO rules and policies distribute the benefits of trade equitably among all citizens.

The value of SIAs lies in generating new thinking and new approaches on the interface between trade-development-environment. It is essential that mechanisms are established to ensure that the lessons and recommendations produced by SIAs are effectively incorporated into future EU trade policy-making processes, and that they do not become mere academic or public relations exercises.

To date, the European Commission’s SIA has not been effectively deployed to inform and foster inter-departmental discussions in any significant way, let alone to mobilise all the necessary expertise within the Commission (including environment, development, agriculture, fisheries, trade and other officials), which is needed to maximise the impact of the SIA on EU trade and trade-related policy-making processes. Furthermore, the SIA has not been used to inform the decisions of the 133 Committee of the Council. Neither have the European Parliament nor the national parliaments of Member States been involved in the SIA process with a view to informing national debates on trade policy-making. In addition, calls from civil society for an in-depth review of the sustainability impact of existing trade agreements have been ignored.

In short, we believe that the potential of the SIA process to make EU trade policy sustainable has not even begun to be used. We therefore call on the European Commission and EU Member States to take the following actions in the coming months:

1. Commit resources to review the impacts of the existing Uruguay Round Agreements, both on the EU and on its trading partners, including their effects on the environment, poverty, development, human rights, gender equity, marginalised communities and democracy;
2. Make SIAs mandatory for any bilateral, regional or multilateral trade agreement in which the EU is involved by institutionalising the SIA practice in EU trade policy-making, and establishing concrete mechanisms for learning from SIAs to inform policy development;
3. Set up a calendar of consultations with civil society both at the European and national levels on the development and furthering of the SIA process, involving also both the European Parliament and the national parliaments;
4. De-restrict and put up on DG Trade’s Website discussion documents for the 133 Committee of the Council as soon as they become available from the Commission;
5. Commit extensive resources for an aid and technical assistance package in support of SIAs and capacity building activities in developing countries, in partnership with potentially interested countries;
6. Increase international co-operation with relevant intergovernmental organisations (e.g. WTO, UNEP, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, FAO, ILO, CSD, UNIFEM, etc.) and trading partners in the field of SIAs with a view to developing international best practice and enhancing co-ordination and joint work. An obvious forum to discuss international co-ordination in this field is the forthcoming 8^th Session of the CSD of the UN, which is meeting in April-May 2000.

Furthermore, the undersigned NGOs call on the European Commission to:

1. Set up a regular public reporting mechanism whereby the progress made in integrating sustainability into EU trade policy making can be easily tracked and monitored (for example, through the Internet);
2. Establish and fund an external expert advisory committee to help steer the future SIA process in the EU with the participation of NGOs, trade unions, academics and business associations;
3. Set up effective inter-departmental consultations, including at Cabinet and Director General levels, involving at least the Directorate Generals for Trade, Environment, Development, External Affairs (Relex), Fisheries, Agriculture, Social affairs and Consumer affairs with a view to ensuring coherence across EU policies and the effective integration of sustainability into the design, development and application of EU trade and trade-related policies;
4. Establish gate-keepers and clear staff responsibilities in its various Directorate Generals to feed the findings and recommendations of the SIA into day-to-day trade policy making in the EU;
5. Develop, in consultation with civil society and trading partners, an ambitious programme for Phase III of the SIA. Phase III should:

• review the sustainability impacts of the existing Uruguay Round Agreements, both on the EU and on its trading partners, and modify the methodology developed under Phase I (especially as referred to the Baseline Scenario) to account for ex post impacts of Uruguay Round Agreements;
• include sectors not covered by Phase II such as fisheries, forests and manufactures, while paying special attention to special social groups such as children and women in both developing and developed countries;
• adopt a regional and even sub-regional approach so that its results are more concrete and its recommendations can foster policy coherence across different EU external policies vis-à-vis regional groupings of countries. This would clearly facilitate the deployment of a range of instruments (including development cooperation and technical assistance) available in the EU to enhance the positive impacts of trade liberalisation and mitigate the negative effects both within the EU and in third countries (especially in LDCs);

The undersigned NGOs encourage the European Commission to continue, and further develop, the important work to assess the sustainability impact of WTO agreements. We believe that the effectiveness of the SIA process in shaping EU trade policies in support of sustainable development will be substantially increased if the suggestions made above are embraced. The undersigned NGOs will monitor the progress made by the Commission on the SIA process in the coming months against the above checklist.

• MED Forum will participate to the International Conference Strategic challenges for sustainable European Tourism in the XXI century to be held on Porto, 13 - 14 Abril 2000.

Conferência Nacional

International Conference

• MED Forum for the protection of the hawksbill turtle.

MED Forum, Mediterranean NGO Network for the Ecology and Sustainable Development, state our opposition to the two proposals to reopen international trade in critically endangered hawksbill turtles submitted by cuba to the 2000 meeting of the parties of the convention on international trade in endangered species (cites).