• by IPS Correspondents (bonn)
• Thursday, December 08, 1994
• Inter Press Service

BONN, Dic 08 (IPS) - Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Thursday charged that this weekend's biannual European Union (EU) summit would ignore issues of particular relevance to the Third World.

On the eve of the EU meet Friday and Saturday in Essen, 'Germanwatch' NGO's chairman Holger Baum said the European governments and officials were taking "a rather Euro-centrist attitude".

This view was shared by a spokesman of some 20 NGOs and political groupings which have planned protests on Saturday -- a move that may not materialise if the authorities do not lift the ban on demonstrations.

The EU summit taking place in Essen -- about 160 kms north of Bonn -- will bring together the leaders of the 12 EU countries as well as their counterparts from Austria, Sweden, and Finland, which are on the threshold of joining the grouping.

"They will think of the Third World only when they feel that their economic and political interests are at stake," Baum told IPS.

He noted for example that debts of developing countries had reached 1.75 billion dollars at the end of 1993 and yet "this new record level" would not be addressed even though it is well documented how the debt servicing charges and structural adjustment programmes were a heavy burden on the indebted countries.

To a significant extent, the 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states which have signed a special LOME accord of economic cooperation with the EU, were among the worst affected, said Baum.

Germany, which hands over EU presidency to France on Jan 1, is a major creditor of the countries of the South. "And one can't really say that Bonn has come up with any scintillating proposals to resolve the debt issue," added Baum.

In an analysis published Thursday, the 'North-South Forum' NGO said the European Commission had tabled four-fold proposals aimed at giving a new shape to the EU's relations with the non-EU and overseas countries.

On the agenda were the expansion of the EU to include central and eastern European states and the building up of a partnership with the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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