Food aid: conclusion of the Food Aid Convention 1999

1999/0131(CNS)
The committee adopted the report (consultation procedure) by Agnes SCHIERHUBER (EPP/ED, A) approving the Council decision on the conclusion on behalf of the European Community of the 1999 Food Aid Convention, involving the modification and extension of the Convention until 30 June 2001. Parliament was consulted only on the Council's decision on the approval of the Convention, and no amendments could be tabled on the content of the Convention as such. The committee was in favour of extending the Food Aid Convention and also approved of the modifications which had been made. It nevertheless felt that there was room for improvement in certain areas, such as broadening the range of donor countries and ensuring that the creation of food security was always the long-term objective, so that food aid would ultimately become unnecessary. The report said that the impact of food aid on local food production and markets should be carefully assessed and care should be taken to ensure that food aid really reached its target groups, and pointed out that the role of women in this connection was particularly important.�