mr president i want to congratulate my colleague mr hutchinson on the excellent report he has written on a very important subject
the commission and the european union give a vast quantity of money to developing countries the majority of which to africa
about fifty of africans still live on less than usd one a day and seventy-five of aid victims all over the world come from africa
given these appalling statistics it is right that we should give support to africa to provide clean drinking water and allow the african population to develop sustainably
however when we give money to african governments as the commission now does under something called budgetary support we should also insist that budgetary support given to african countries be scrutinised by their own parliaments in a very rigorous way and that the financial agreements signed between the commission and the african nations are open to public scrutiny and transparency in the national parliaments of african countries and the acp countries
this is a very important point to make in order to safeguard european taxpayers money
