By Martin Banks - 5th May 2011
Call us naive but there must be a way for developing countries to benefit from their resources
Judith Sargentini
A conference in parliament was told that the EU has a "crucial" role to play in helping developing countries benefit from the supply of raw materials.
The debate on Wednesday heard that global natural resource extraction is meant to increase by up to five times by 2050.
In the period 2000-2007, net imports of raw materials in the EU increased by almost 26 per cent.
But Dutch Greens member Judith Sargentini, one of the keynote speakers, said that many developing countries – especially in Africa – have not been able to translate their resource wealth into sustainable and inclusive growth.
She said this is often because of governance issues related to regulatory frameworks or taxation.
"Enhancing governance and transparency, as well as the trade and investment climate, in the raw materials sector, is essential for achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development in resource rich countries.
"The EU, through its development policies and in partnership with developing countries, can play a crucial role in creating win-win situations where both developed and developing countries benefit from the sustainable supply of raw materials."
The conference, organised by the Greens, comes as the EU is currently drafting its raw materials initiative.
Sargentini, who spoke in a session on trade and development, said, "Call us naive but there must be a way for developing countries to benefit from their resources. 'Coherence' is the buzz word. Europe must not copy China's beads for oil behavior, but formulate an offer that can't be refused."
One solution, she argued, would be export taxes on raw materials.
"The commission wants to fight export restrictions that could restrict supply for the EU, while many developing countries are dependent on income from raw materials exports.
"Export taxes are often an important means of income to promote industrialisation and economic development. But they are also used in the context of environmental protection.
More must be done to tackle corruption, she said, adding, "There are valuable initiatives such as the commission's country by country reporting, the standards promoted by the 'publish what you pay' campaign and the governmental driven 'extractive industries transparency initiative'.
"If Europe implements these rules in its raw material initiative, we would have a sustainable offer, we should not be ashamed of."
Another speaker, Dutch deputy Bas Eickhout, pointed out that resource efficiency is one of the seven flagships of the EU2020 strategy.
Eickhout, also a Greens member, said the aim should be "not only to secure the supply of raw materials but also to reduce our environmental impact on the world we live in.
"Mining, for example, is an energy slurping and polluting activity. Strict environmental rules prohibit much resource extraction within Europe and having less metallic mineral mines than other regions in the first place, we are very dependent on third countries for our supplies."
He added, "In order to move towards a resource efficient economy, we need to reduce our absolute consumption of raw materials and try to substitute, especially the critical raw materials or the most environmentally damaging raw materials, and increase our resource efficiency."
Increasing the recycling of raw materials was another possible solution, he said.
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