Eurocommissaris De Gucht: 'Europese Ontwikkelingsdagen groot succes' (en)

Speech Karel De Gucht i

EU Commissioner for Development and humanitarian aid

Closing Remarks at the European Development Days

European Development Days

Stockholm, 24 Octo ber 2009

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would say the 2009 edition of the European Development Days has been a tremendous success.

With over 5500 visitors there have been plenty of opportunities for networking;

And with two and a half days full of round-tables, plenary sessions and some 40 side events, there has been plenty of room for debate.

Very good debates, I must say. The quality of speakers, moderators and discussions has been excellent. Those asking questions and participating in the debates have shown a depth of knowledge - be it academic, political or field knowledge – that was stimulating and illuminating for all of us.

That is what DevDays are for. That is what the organizers at the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency have spent so much time and effort to achieve. I’d like to thank them for a job well done.

And I would like to thank you all for the same reason – but we know the real work is still ahead of us.

As these debates showed, we do not agree on everything. If that were the case, Development Days would not be necessary.

But we DO agree on some things. There is consensus on the challenges for development in the years to come and on the overall conditions that need to be in place for development to come about and to be sustainable.

So first of all, we spoke about money:

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  about how the global economic downturn has affected the poorest countries the most; how they ended up being treated the worst due to proble ms they had no part in creating;
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  about Climate Change and its effects on the least developed and on the worst affected countries, and about development’s role in countering the trends and dealing with the consequences. That is THE theme for development policy in the weeks and years to come – not as an EXTRA, separate sector but as a horizontal issue that needs to be addressed and calculated in into everything we do;
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  also, we all realize that more money will be needed the coming years; and a good and necessary debate evolved about how the developing countries, the EU, the IMF etc can, could and should contribute to financing ‘redevelopment’;
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  lastly, we underlined that we in Europe can make aid more efficient by co-operating and focusing it on the results rather than on the donor country’s intentions.

At the same time, though, everyone here realizes that development is about so much more than money.

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  so we debated the role of effective governance and the difficulties in making that happen;
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  we spoke about legal empowerment of the poor;
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  and about governance structures and economic empowerment on a micro level.

But institutions, too, should be broad and ‘living’ things if they are to carry the weight of real development. THAT, we all agree on as well:

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  a genuine and sustainable development needs a vibrant democracy;
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  and that does not just mean ‘it needs elections’: it needs citizenship as well;
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  it needs active, free and responsible media to play their role, and we awarded the Natali Journalism Prizes the day before yesterday to some very impressive and very brave examples of quality journalism around the world;
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  it also needs responsible and responsive politicians;
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  and it needs a civil society that adds to society’s richness, that exposes its problems and strengthens its solutions.

In all, you could see development as a 3-legged stool, with the economy being one leg, institutions and state structures forming another one, and human rights and freedoms forming the third.

If the 3 legs are unequal, if one is much longer than the others, development will remain unbalanced and unsustainable – and the stool is bound to fall over.

If home grown democratic and state institutions do not follow economic growth, more money will not make development happen. If people are without jobs and without rights, holding elections will not mean real democratic development. And redesigning government systems will not help if people do not see the system working towards a better life.

The main question in all this was what can we do about it ?

What can the international community, the EU, leaders of the developed world and of the developing world, of civil society and ngo’s… what can we do to make all 3 legs of the stool stronger and more evenly balanced?

And while we not always agree on how to do it, we DO agree that with the Money and the Morals that we do have, if we work together we can do More .

One last thing I would like to add, one last thing we now all agree on, is that this is OUR problem. It is not the developing world’s problem, not someone else’s problem, no. Underdevelopment is a global problem that is threatening us ALL.

One of our guests here at the closing ceremony and the next speaker, MEP and my predecessor as development Commissioner Louis Michel i, summarized this paradox in the following way: ‘if you do not engage out of solidarity, do it out of self interest’.

I feel that message has come across.

That after all these years, people all over the world realize that the hungry billion is not only a moral disgrace. It is a security threat as well.

That the bottom billion is a factor of instability around the world.

That climate change and migration, disrespect of human dignity and poverty are a problem we share together. So we had better find the answers together as well.