Today's Date:

Immigration and Development

Reply given by Mme Brigitte Girardin, Minister Delegate for Cooperation, Development and Francophony, to a question in the National Assembly.

You are absolutely right to draw attention to the fact that all these young men and women pushing at Europe’s door, driven by despair, must bring home to us the need to resolve a problem, one of development, and in particular development of Sub-Saharan Africa.

As you know, for ten years, at President Chirac’s instigation, France has been pressing the case for development and particularly that of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fortunately, for a while now we haven’t been the only ones arguing this cause. The G8 and the UN summit have finally put development at the heart of the international agenda.

We have made huge efforts at bilateral level and are also endeavouring to mobilize all our partners. I’d like to remind you that not that long ago, in 2001, France’s Official Development Assistance was only €5 billion. In 2006, we shall be increasing it to €8 billion. We have become the leading contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We are the leading contributor to the European Development Fund and African Development Fund.

But we are going further, we are trying, thanks to the initiatives taken by President Chirac, to mobilize all our partners in support of innovative development financing, since we clearly won’t succeed in conquering famine and poverty in Africa through budgetary assistance alone.

We are taking the initiative, we are pioneers, admittedly, and we shall go on playing this role, since this is the whole thrust of France’s action vis-à-vis the African countries, towards which we have a very great responsibility and, in any case, we have a very strong political will to conquer this underdevelopment./.