Debate contributions by Udo BULLMANN

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. Africa is the youngest continent in the world. 40% of the population is under the age of 15. These are hundreds of millions of young people who are eagerly waiting for good education and training, for meaningful work with which they can contribute to the future of their countries. This is where the challenge of the summit in Angola lies, but also the opportunity. We can help to do great things. We can be partners – if our programmes are geared towards, our cooperation is geared towards, in fact, solving the problems. Fighting inequality, value creation in partner countries call for good jobs for the future: This must be included in the Europeans’ agenda for this summit – nothing less, and we want to contribute to this.

Mr President, Commissioner, honourable Presidency of the Council, ladies and gentlemen! If you want to live in prosperity and peace tomorrow, you have to invest in international, reliable partnerships today. This is the commandment of the hour. We are talking about opportunities – yes, that is right. We have to be there when others withdraw. But, Commissioner, please tell us in your reply: How much money is still in the budget for next year – for good education and work, for international aid in the event of a crisis, for humanitarian assistance? That is why the external committees rightly state that there must be a significant increase in international engagement, because otherwise we will no longer be able to act internationally. I believe – and this is addressed to the Commission as well as to the Council – that this window of opportunity must not be overlooked.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, Madam Minister! I don't know if everyone in Seville understood the former minister of Senegal correctly: What she wanted was a real partnership. She pleaded for this, and she invited us to enter into a real partnership. This is precisely why such people are invited to discuss with us how this can be done in practice so that we can have a common success. That is my firm conviction. I just want to point out that a year ago in New York it was the Global South that, together with Europe, saved the multilateral system and linked hopes with it. We have reacted by massively reducing our development cooperation. Commissioner, I hope, Madam Minister, I hope that there will be more left of Seville. I want to express a warning, a wish to the address of Mrs. von der Leyen: If it presents the Multiannual Financial Framework next week, it should be an opportunity to do so, not a diminution of our chances by the fact that we can no longer measure what we want to do together.

Madam President, Commissioner! Dear colleagues! punitive tariffs on friendly nations, the dismantling of its own development agency, the adoption of the Paris Agreement, yes, the announcement to withdraw from the obligations of the World Bank and other international funds: This is not Washington as we know it. This is Neanderthal, this is club-winging before any civilization. For me it is clear: The US after Trump will be weaker and more isolated and have fewer friends than ever before in its history. The net profiteers are located in China. What is the lesson for the European Union? Show your face! In fact, we are stepping up cooperation with the countries in the world that want to cooperate with us, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America. They are waiting for the increased commitment of Europeans, and that is the only thing that will help us to build a sustainable, solidarity-based world. This is the commandment of the hour.

Mr President! Dear colleagues! We see the extent of the atrocities in the east of the Congo, the atrocities committed by the warring parties, but especially also by the M23 militia. We see the indescribable extent of sexual violence. Innocent people are victims of war. CommissionerYou heard the house: This must stop, because it must not be that the industrialized states also become the profiteers of mass murders, because it must not be that our economic interests trump human rights. Therefore: There is no hypocrisy in this discussion. They must act massively where the European Union has influence, and that is in Rwanda. We finance a large part of the budget. We have signed a memorandum containing moral obligations in economic policy and economic exchange. That's what we're waiting for, that's what this house is pushing for.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! The Commissioner is right: It was a success in New York. The summit for the future was a success. The Pact for the Future is a success. Why? Let me point this out again, Commissioner. Not because we have already achieved everything that urgently needs to happen. No, we do not yet have a global agreement on a common tax concept. No, we do not yet have the large start-up funding for the SDGs, all that is still to come. But nevertheless: You are absolutely right, it was a huge success because Putin's attempt at sabotage of the multilateral order has been rejected by a large majority. We owe this not only to those who negotiated - Namibia and Germany - no, you rightly said it: African nations, Latin America and the peoples of Asia. Why have these countries called for a pact for the future, which should make it possible for joint action on this globe to continue tomorrow? Because they have very specific expectations of this, which we now have to fulfil: Yes, the reform of the Security Council, but also the sustainable financing of its fight against climate change and ensuring that inequality is tackled on this globe. We have the opportunity to: COP 29, G20, there are a lot of assemblies that enable us to act and that call on the European Union to act. There's only one thing you can't do: that the EU gives the impression, as in these days, that we are cutting funds and only looking inward. My group will pay attention to this in this mandate, but also in the discussions with the candidates who now want to become Commissioners.