EUROPEAN COMMUNITY - COMMUNAUTE EUROPEENNE - COMUNIDAD EUROPEA

His Excellency Dr. D.J. Franz Fischler, Member of the European Commission Responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development

Let me say how honoured and moved I am to count among the authorities who have the opportunity this week in Rome to support the initiative of FAO Director-General Mr. Jacques Diouf and the World Food Summit.

Hunger and malnutrition are a scourge, a curse that cannot be tolerated any longer, morally, socially, politically and economically. This can be agreed by each and every human being, regardless of religious beliefs and political creed. This is why I hail the Rome Declaration and the World Food Summit Plan of Action as a great achievement. There are two temptations the world community faces regarding hunger and food security. The biggest temptation, of course, is to find culprits and scapegoats. Why should we take the lead in combating hunger if others are responsible for it? Another temptation is to disagree about the causes of malnutrition; as long as we disagree on its causes, how can we agree on the means best suited to eradicate it? Giving in to either temptation might at best provide a certificate of good conscience justifying inaction.

The moral thing to do is, therefore, not to apportion blame but enter into hundreds, not to say thousands, of partnerships against malnutrition and hunger, whereby every individual, region, nation and organization, most notably the NGOs endeavour to do what they do or can do best. The negotiations on the Declaration and the Plan of Action have been tough, which is a sign of everybody's strong commitment and reflects the search for a balanced outcome. Several LDCs have stressed the need to invest more in agriculture in order to improve food security, which means provide assistance to this effect. The Policy Statement and the Plan of Action rightly underline that food security depends above all on improving access to food, increasing the food purchasing power of the poorest, reducing inequality, eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable production and on the essential preconditions of peace, domestic stability, good governance and a respect for human rights.

Certain developing countries have improved dramatically their food security situation in the last decades. Those countries can now take advantage of the globalization of the world economy. On the contrary, many other countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, risk being marginalized from this process.

External support must complement food security efforts of the net-food-importing developing countries. But these must realize that developed countries do not wish to put at risk investments and resources that may come to nought due to social strife or other man-made disasters.

But developed countries must be prepared to put the necessary private and public resources into food production in countries which meet the necessary requirements. They must also be prepared to adjust their own production to the needs of the environment and to the constraints of international competition and cooperate with the developing countries through technical assistance, research, investments and in other ways in order to allow them to fully participate in international trade.

As we go back home, we need to proclaim loudly the insights we heard here and the new determination we carry with us.

These insights are notably that:

a) all of mankind has a collective responsibility for hunger in the world and for remedial action, although food security actually starts at home;

b) as the Plan of Action says - "unless national governments and the international community address the multi-faceted causes underlying food insecurity, the number of hungry and malnourished people will remain very high in many developing countries";

c) citizens in poor, overpopulated areas must do more to limit population growth, whereas citizens in well-off areas must notably try to limit over-consumption and accept to contribute - personally and through their countries' budgets - to help the undernourished at home and abroad;

d) agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development are multi-functional and must be sustainable, wherever they take place, in temperate, tropical or arctic zones, in rich and poorer countries alike.

You will notice that my emphasis is on a balanced approach, because only "Partners in Development" can combat hunger and malnutrition with success.

Sustainability, as described in the Rio Declaration is essential in all this, if the productive capacity of healthy food is to be guaranteed to future generations on our planet. This is also the key concept in the "Cork Declaration - A living Countryside" which 500 rural experts from all over Europe issued last week in Ireland, which I have made available to delegates.

The Plan of Action stresses the importance of maintaining "an adequate capacity in the international community to provide food aid, whenever it is required in response to emergencies" and says that "equitable access to food supplies must be insured".

Food aid remains an important instrument to respond to natural and man-made disasters. In this light, I should stress the paramount role played by the European Commission (EC) in the Great Lakes crisis since its beginning. In fact, the EC has been the major donor in this area. We are ready to continue to play this role. Therefore, I fully subscribe to the appeals already made in this room to the institutions of the international community to ensure the conditions for this concerted humanitarian action, and I take this opportunity to appeal to the governments concerned, in particular those of Zaire and Rwanda, to finally and urgently open up corridors for the transit of humanitarian assistance.

The fact is that food security is a complex issue, which is part of a wider context and has no ready-made solution. Even if we limit ourselves to the simple agro-food elements of food security, we must ask ourselves whether we can, at one and the same time, pursue partly contradictory objectives, such as, greater market orientation, notably stock reduction, extensification of agriculture and more organic and quality farming, keeping as many people as possible on the land, reducing taxes and, most important, helping to address the needs of the 800 million chronically undernourished people in the world.

We all know in our hearts that simply liberalizing the agricultural market cannot be the only answer, because there are many people who cannot pay.

The EC and its Member States have been playing and will continue to play an active part in solving the problems of food security.

The Commission offers its support to the FAO Committee on World Food Security in monitoring the Plan of Action. "If - as this Plan says - all parties at local, national, regional and international levels make determined and sustained efforts, then the overall goal of Food for All, at all times, will be achieved". But the road to be travelled will be long.