European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (Agreement amending the Cotonou Agreement) Order 2007

My Lords, we, too, welcome these orders as an opportunity for the United Kingdomto carry on with its hitherto rather impressive contributions to international aid under these programmes. I thank the Minister for the detailed explanation of the two orders. The relative position of the recipient countries in the ACP framework is, and always has been, that they are much weaker on average as recipients than arethe donators—the member states of the European Union. To some extent that difference has not narrowed as much as we might have expected because of the slowness of development in some recipient countries. The fact that the EU is much stronger gives us the opportunity to increase our contribution; the figures for EDF 10 show an impressive increase from previous figures. A lot of progress has been madeover the years since the old days when the Lomé convention first started. The negotiating postures between the member states and the recipients can often bring problems when the recipient countries do not effectively negotiate what they should be getting and lose out, not only in certain marketplace opportunities and aid fund receipts, but also in how they can deploy their strategies for internal economic development for the few years ahead of whatever year of settlement this is. This gives the opportunity, which the Conservative official spokesman referred to, for the European Union to carry on increasing its monitoring, supervision and surveillance procedures for these matters. This is a matter of concern. There is a general impression that a lot of improvement has been made in the technical surveillance capacities and the ability of the officials representing the European Union and the member states to make sure that the money is deployed properly for specific projects.The use of money remains a concern in certain countries. The Minister may wish deliberately to avoid highlighting which countries are giving concern, but that is of help to the House if that information is available. At the time of Commissioner Patten’s work on the previous negotiations, when Cotonou started in 2000, there was to be much more focus on the eradication of poverty, rather than the general disbursement of aid in a much vaguer way, as one had had hitherto. Does the Minister feel that progress has been made in that focusing exercise, so that the millennium development goals of the United Nations are beginning to be achieved by the global activities of the EU as part of that general picture? Commentators and people in the entertainment business have made great intellectual contributions to these matters and registered their disappointment at how these goals are not being achieved. More needs to be done by the European Union, which—speaking from memory and not having the figures to hand—gives more money in aid than the United States does. One significant proportion of total US aid goes to one country—Israel—which can be classified as an advanced country and not a developing country. The figures for the European Union are therefore impressive and we welcome the increases. There are, as the Minister knows, still exemptions in these fields, which are disadvantageous to developing countries. One thinks of the exemptions for sugar beet, and other favoured markets in the European Union, where the cartel protection for European advanced countries still exists; that continues to be very unsatisfactory. The EU-Africa second summit will take place in Lisbon in December 2007. It will not primarily deal with matters such as aid and European Investment Bank activity. It is much more to do with non-economic, non-financial, non-aid matters. It is also about an ambitious strategic new partnership with African countries—part of the ACP framework—on security and so on. Security as a global umbrella concept is important from the point of view of development, so there is a link there. It is good to see that that link—the wider context between the EU and Africa—is developing apace. The success story is there. Good governance has to be emphasised much more, and the five-year reviews constitute a good framework on which to develop these matters over the 20-year period, but the good governance syndrome needs special attention. I hope the Minister can reassure us yet again that that will be given priority. She said that trade issues were not directly involved in this and that they were a separate part of the discussions coming through the other frameworks. That brings us back to the question of whether our international institutions, which were developed after the Second World War, are still as apposite as they should be for direct assistance to developing countries, and whether they need to be modified in any of their parameters and procedures to help countries, besides just representing the advanced and wealthy West. I am glad that, as she said, the United Kingdom is giving nearly 15 per cent of the total of these increased figures. The partnership agreement between the ACP group of states and the EC has got off to a good start. A lot more needs to be done, and we welcome the increases that will come, presumably, as the years unfold. It is still in the early stages;we need to be reassured that the procedures and administration are running efficiently. On that supposition, I am happy to support these orders.