Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its Member States and the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
I call for approval of the Samoa Agreement as it promotes sustainable trade, economic growth, and prosperity by reducing trade barriers and strengthening the private sector 1. M believes that Sweden and the EU can set a global standard for responsible trade and green growth 1. M questions how MP can combat poverty if their environmental policy makes Sweden poorer 2 and argues that MP seems to want to abandon poor countries to save the climate 3. MP considers that the agreement is good for democratization and health, but criticizes the weak climate parts, the lack of time limits for fossil subsidies, and the inability to address overfishing 4. MP emphasizes that growth linked to the consumption of finite resources is not sustainable 5 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Joanna Lewerentz (M)
Madam Speaker! Development, innovation, security, peace and prosperity - all these are an effect of exchange, partnership and free trade between countries in the world.
Since the 70s, the European Economic Community has had a cooperation with the 79 states in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. This cooperation was developed in 2000 with the Cotonou Agreement, which guided the relations between the EU and the Organisation for African, Caribbean and Pacific States and is now replaced by the Samoa Agreement. The Samoa Agreement covers more areas of cooperation than the previous agreement, and the agreement implies, among other things, that better conditions for sustainable trade and sustainable growth are created.
Free trade and international cooperation are not just economic tools. They are fundamental building blocks for a more peaceful and prosperous world. By supporting and developing agreements such as the Samoa Agreement, we can not only promote economic growth but also strengthen the global ties that contribute to long-term security and stability.
It is incredibly important that Sweden, as a democratic country where a large part of the economy is built on trade with other countries, continues to stand up for that this type of cooperation proceeds and develops. Simplified opportunities for countries to conduct trade are not only beneficial for the developing countries that we and the EU trade with, but also a backbone in the Swedish economy. We must continue to promote these principles and work to create a future where trade is not just a means for economic gain but also a path toward global justice and sustainable development. With the Samoa Agreement, the 79 member states, the EU, and Sweden contribute to benefiting these principles, based on human rights, democracy, social and human development, sustainable and simplified trade, migration, and sustainable growth.
The Samoa Agreement is not a trade agreement but aims, among other things, to deepen cooperation, reduce trade barriers and promote fair conditions within trade. This creates more business opportunities, which strengthens and develops the private sector and increases the possibility for more companies to start and expand. It is an important part of the work to achieve the agreement's goal number 4, that all citizens in all 79 member states shall have decent work. This is the key to creating prosperity.
In addition to creating good conditions for increased prosperity, the growing prosperity can simultaneously take off in an innovative and environmentally sustainable growth. For Sweden and the EU, this means an opportunity to set a global standard for how trade and development can be conducted in a responsible manner. Sweden has already shown that emission reductions can go hand in hand with growth, and with a growth target that complements the emission target, which M intends to drive in the EU, Sweden and the EU can take the lead and show the way for green growth. We now have great opportunities to, together with the 79 member states, contribute to this.
With this, Madam Speaker, I would like to move for the approval of the committee's proposal in the report.
Jacob Risberg (MP)
Madam Speaker! First and foremost, I would like to take the opportunity to welcome Joanna Lewerentz to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. This may not be a typical Committee on Foreign Affairs debate; very few people have signed up, and the speaking time will probably not be exceeded by very much. But you will surely get to experience that in the future.
Today, the Riksdag shall approve the partnership agreement between, on the one hand, the European Union and, on the other hand, the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, OACPS. It is an agreement that contains a great deal of good things and which can hopefully contribute to both increased democratization, increased economic prosperity, and increased peace in the regions covered by the agreement.
The partnership agreement highlights the right to free education and specifically mentions girls' rights. The agreement speaks about the right to sexual and reproductive health and contributes to strengthening access to health and medical care. And the agreement highlights the importance of promoting resilient livelihoods, securing access to land, water, and other resources, and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth in agricultural production.
Madam Speaker! All of this is, of course, good and will hopefully make a difference for millions of people. And it is many who are covered. The agreement covers 2 billion people, so it is a bit of a pity that the agreement and its content do not receive more attention.
There are, however, parts of the agreement that could have been better. Regarding climate change, there are quite a few good formulations, but they are far too weak. Take the texts on fossil subsidies as an example. According to the agreement, these subsidies shall be phased out, but no time limit is given for that or any proposal on how quickly it should happen. And as for climate adaptation – which is perhaps the most important issue for both Africa and the Caribbean when it comes to maintaining livelihoods and even nature's survival – it only states that measures for climate adaptation shall be promoted. It is not particularly progressive and is far from the measures required in this increasingly accelerating climate crisis.
Madam Speaker! The chapter on ocean governance is important, but it does not address the major problem of overfishing and industrial trawling off the coasts of Africa. It is an overfishing that is primarily we in the EU and a few other wealthy countries who are behind. The overfishing leads not only to reduced opportunities for self-sufficiency in the coastal states but also to increased crime and armed attacks on civil shipping.
Connected to this, and also connected to the decades and centuries of colonial plunder of Africa's and the Caribbean's countries that we too have been a part of, are the downsides of the missing or slow economic development that this has led to, as well as the widespread poverty and lack of food, clean water, healthcare, and education that we see even today. This hits hardest the hundreds of millions of people who are affected. These are problems that we must address more powerfully.
What happens when people's living conditions are destroyed? They are forced to flee in order to simply survive or to find opportunities to support their family. How does the agreement handle issues regarding precisely migration? Well, it clarifies a great deal regarding rights concerning migration but highlights above all the states' obligations to prevent irregular migration without addressing all the measures that could contribute to counteracting the very root causes of why people flee.
Madam Speaker! With this, I move for the approval of the Committee on Foreign Affairs' proposal to approve the partnership agreement between, on the one hand, the European Union and its Member States and, on the other hand, the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
Joanna Lewerentz (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member Risberg, for the welcome! Even if we are not at risk of exceeding the speaking time, I thought we must have some action.
Among the member states in Osaka are many of the world's poorest countries. It is no news that the Green Party is a somewhat growth-hostile party. I would, however, like to ask Member Risberg how we are to combat poverty in these countries when the Green Party's own environmental policy aims to even make Sweden poorer.
Sweden, as a country, has a unique opportunity to, in collaboration with innovative companies and the EU, take the lead in creating precisely green growth—growth that eradicates poverty, maintains the prosperity that we have built up in Sweden over many years, while simultaneously making world trade greener. Why not take advantage of this?
Jacob Risberg (MP)
Madam Speaker! I am a bit unsure what the member means by that we are against green growth, because that is something we have fought for for a long time, both here in the Riksdag and when we have sat in government. We have pushed through a good deal of things that promote green growth, including Industriklivet and Klimatklivet, which I think are important matters.
This also applies to the countries we are talking about in this agreement. They must also have access to green growth. But we must also contribute to ensuring that this growth is decoupled from increased fossil use. That is the big problem.
The problem with our growth has so far been that the wealthier we become and the more we consume, the more emissions occur, and it is not sustainable. We see it already today. For 18 months, the warming has been above 1.5 degrees globally. It is a warming that we, according to the Paris Agreement, would try to stay under. Now we see that we are failing at that.
We must reduce the climate-damaging subsidies as quickly as possible. We must stop using fossil fuels and so on. It is this that we must decouple from growth and create ecological and green growth - not continue to drill for oil and gas that we burn up.
Joanna Lewerentz (M)
Madam Speaker! In the Green Party's party program, it is explicitly stated that constant economic growth is not compatible with meeting environmental goals. My question remains. How is prosperity in the world to increase if we do not allow economies to grow? How, for example, will Sweden be able to send aid to people in these poor countries if we have no money to send?
In my ears, it sounds like the Green Party thinks we should abandon the world's poor countries if we are to save the climate.
Jacob Risberg (MP)
Madam Speaker! The problem is that we do not have infinite resources. That is where the problem lies. We are retreating regarding all planetary boundaries.
The growth we have seen so far has constantly led to us depleting the planet's resources more and more. Let me take helium as an example. What do we use helium for today? Well, it is primarily at markets where one can buy balloons for their children. But the absolutely most important use of helium is for X-ray machines in healthcare, where it is used for cooling. Helium does not exist naturally in the atmosphere; instead, it must be dug up from mines. What happens the day we release the helium into the atmosphere? Well, it disappears into space. It is a finite resource. That is just one example.
We cannot continue to have economic growth that is linked to us consuming the earth's resources, because it will not be sustainable. Healthcare will not survive in a couple of decades when there is no helium left, because we have used all the helium. There are thousands of examples of resources that are finite which we cannot continue to use in this way.
The deliberation was hereby concluded.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.