[E-rundbrief] Info 167 - Zweifelhaftes Demokratieverst�ndnis der WTO

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 167 - Zweifelhaftes Demokratieverständnis bei der 
Parlamentarischen Konferenz zur WTO in Brüssel, 24. - 26.11.2004. Proteste 
von WTO-kritischen Parlamentariern.

Bad Ischl, 30.11.2004

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

===========================================================


Zweifelhaftes Demokratieverständnis bei der Parlamentarischen Konferenz zur 
WTO in Brüssel, 24. - 26.11.2004.

In meinem Kommentar "5 Jahre nach den Protestaktionen gegen die 
WTO-Konferenz in Seattle" (Info 166) habe ich auch die fragwürdigen, 
undemokratischen Praktiken der WTO und ihrer neoliberalen Verbündeten 
kritisiert. Fast zur gleichen Zeit erreichte mich der folgende Bericht aus 
Brüssel über eine hochrangige WTO-Konferenz, der meine Kritik eindrucksvoll 
bestätigt.

Matthias Reichl

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

Last week (November 24-26, 2004) a so-called joint parliamentary assembly 
on the WTO took place in the European Parliament buildings in Brussels. I 
forward a short report by Gaby Kuppers (adviser of the Green group in the 
European Parliament) and a declaration co-signed by parliamentarians 
Helmuth Markov (United Left, European Parliament), Dario Vivas (Movement of 
the Fifth Republic, Venezuela), Caroline Lucas (Greens, European 
Parliament), Carlos Baráibar (Frente Amplio del Uruguay, Uruguay), 
rejecting the WTO Parliamentary Assembly process as a fake.

Erik Wesselius
Corporate Europe Observatory

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: press release on the fake WTO Parliamentary Conference
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:34:39 +0100
From: KUPPERS Gaby <gkuppers at europarl.eu.int>

Dear all,

what a shame: after the IPU-EP joint parliamentary assembly on the WTO on 
November 24-26, 2004, it seems that we have now sort of a "parliamentary 
dimension of the WTO" in place.

Almost 500 members of parliament, embassies etc. registered for the 
conference in the hemicycle of the EP (symbolically important!). Many of 
them did not or very little attend, but nevertheless, it's their names on 
the registration lists that count. High level speakers such as WTO DG 
Supachai Panitchpakdi and the new EU commissioner Peter Mandelson addressed 
the audience and referred to the importance of transparency and democracy.

However, there was no transparency and democracy. On Friday morning, the 
rules - drafted by a small steering committee in Geneva, at the beginning 
of September 2004 -  were adopted, without the possiblity of amendming 
them. I have the impression that most people in the room did not realize 
that they were adopting rules. Later this morning, the Final declaration 
was adopted. For the Declaration, there had been the possibility of tabling 
amendments, however, only national delegations as a whole were allowed to 
(which in practice excluded the voices of the opposition). The procedure 
was not to vote them on Friday, but to negotiate them inside a so called 
steering committee with no clear indications of how its composition was 
done. The result of this was presented on Friday morning and adapted by 
acclamation. Again, most of the delegates did not seem to clearly 
understand what they were adopting.

The steering committee meeting was attened by "members" of it. For Latin 
America, for instance, there are two members: a senator from the PAN in 
Mexico (very conservative) and a member from the Blanocs or the Colorados 
in Uruguay (both parties are very conservative). That's it. Both had a pure 
freetrade line (e.g.: they supported an amendment submitted by the Mexican 
and the Brazilian delegation which aimed at eliminating "and fair" from the 
sentence: we are in favour of "free and fair trade".

The steering committee in its deliberation on the amendments was advised 
(!!) by a civil servant from the WTO who asked for the floor each time 
there was a sentence which was not official language of the WTO, 
recommending to reject the respective amendment.  This was for instacne the 
case with an amendment (by us, but I don't tell this because I feel 
personally offended) where we amended (in bold): "....18... We encourage 
all parties... , so as to promote a trading system which is socially, 
economically and ecologically sustainable... " This was rejected, as it is 
not official WTO language!!!

One possibility is to ignore this conference. But I think that the WTO 
supporters will use this assembly in order to say. It was necessayr to give 
the WTO a democratic structure. There it is!

Please find hereafter a press release the Greens/EFA and the GUE delegates 
did together with some delegates from the South. It is translated into 
several linguistic versions.

See you

Gaby Küppers

(Unten in Englisch und Deutsch)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE ON THE WTO IN BRUSSELS

FAKE DEMOCRACY

  The undersigned Members of Parliament, delegates to the Parliamentary 
Conference on the WTO which was held in the European Parliament in Brussels 
from 24 to 26 November 2004, rejects its method and conclusions. We 
consider that the Conference unfortunately merely reproduced the same non 
transparent methods and lack of democracy as the WTO itself, and, - as if 
Seattle and Cancun had not taken place -, its only result was  to repeat 
the neoliberal credo whose devastating effects are however quite real, in 
particular at the social and environmental level.

We denounce the operating rules of this conference. They were negotiated 
without us being able to take part in their development, the information to 
the delegates of the developing countries was not appropriate, and the 
various amendments to the rules that we proposed were not even submitted 
for the consideration of the plenary.

The declaration of the Conference, allegedly adopted by "consensus", 
despite the fact that various members of Parliament expressed proposals for 
change or even an honest opposition to the text, only supports the 
decisions of the WTO, and encourages compliance with its rules. It pushes 
the acceleration of liberalization, despite the well-known opposition that 
this meets on the part of an increasing number of citizens.

We deem it more than ever essential to undertake genuine democratization of 
the international trade negotiations and to build alternatives to 
neoliberalism.

PARLAMENTARISCHE KONFERENZ ZUR WTO IN BRÜSSEL

Zweifelhaftes Demokratieverständnis bei der Parlamentarischen Konferenz zur WTO

Die Unterzeichner/innen, Abgeordnete und Delegierte zur Parlamentarischen 
Konferenz zur WTO (24.-26.11.2004 im Europäischen Parlament in Brüssel), 
lehnen das auf der Konferenz angewandte Verfahren und die dort 
verabschiedeten Schlussfolgerungen ab. Unserer Ansicht nach hat die 
parlamentarische Konferenz, deren erklärtes Ziel eine Demokratisierung der 
WTO ist, den der WTO eigenen Demokratiemangel und deren Intransparenz in 
trauriger Weise nachgeahmt. Als ob Seattle und Cancùn niemals stattgefunden 
hätten, bekräftigt zudem das Abschlussdokument das neoliberale Credo, 
obwohl die verheerenden Auswirkungen neoliberaler Handelspolitik, 
insbesondere im sozialen und im Umweltbereich, hinreichend bekannt sind.

Wir kritisieren das Konferenzverfahren, das ausgehandelt wurde, ohne dass 
wir die Möglichkeit hatten, uns an dessen Erarbeitung zu beteiligen. Die 
Information der Delegierten aus den Entwicklungsländern war unzureichend, 
und die von uns vorgebrachten Änderungsanträge wurden nicht einmal dem 
Plenum zur Begutachtung vorgelegt.

Die Abschlusserklärung der Konferenz, vorgeblich im "Konsensverfahren" 
verabschiedet - obwohl verschiedene Abgeordnete Änderungswünsche oder sogar 
ihre klare Ablehnung vorbrachten - unterstützt lediglich die von der WTO 
getroffenen Beschlüsse und fordert dazu auf, sich den WTO-Regeln 
unterzuordnen. Der Text drängt auf eine beschleunigte 
Handelsliberalisierung, und dies trotz des wachsenden Widerstands in 
breiten Kreisen der Bevölkerungen in vielen Ländern.

Wir sind mehr denn je davon überzeugt, dass es dringend notwendig ist, eine 
wirkliche Demokratisierung der Verhandlungen über internationale 
Handelsvereinbarungen durchzuführen und Alternativen zum Neoliberalismus zu 
entwickeln.

Helmuth Markov , european deputy, European United Left Group in the 
European Parliament (GUE/NGL), Germany

Dario Vivas, deputy, Movement of the Fifth Republic (MVR), Venezuela

Caroline Lucas, european deputy, Group of the GREENS/ALE in the European 
Parliament, United Kingdom

Carlos Baráibar, deputy, Frente Amplio del Uruguay, Uruguay

(Textversionen in Spanisch und Französisch eliminiert. M.R.)

***********************************
Dr. Gaby Küppers
Greens/EFA Group in the EP
Rue Wiertz
PHS 02 C 65
B-1047 Brussels
Tel.: 00322-284 3392
***********************************

===========================================================

Matthias Reichl

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

Wolfgangerstr.26

A-4820 Bad Ischl

Tel. +43-6132-24590

e-mail: mareichl at ping.at

http://www.begegnungszentrum.at