Respekt institut

Respekt institut uzavřel projekt Respekt Global Europe Series, který na čtyřech seminářích umožňoval výměnu názorů českých a britských expertů na důležitá témata pozice EU ve světě: vzdělávání a konkurenceschop­nosti, zelených inovací a energetiky, globální hospodářské krize, a konečně mezinárodní rozvojové spolupráce. Shrnutí seminářů cyklu najdete zde: Respekt Global Europe Series

Gareth Thomas, UK Minister of State for International Development, has recently attended the Informal Meeting of EU Development Ministers in Prague. As part of the Respekt Global Europe Series, Respekt Institut asked Mr. Thomas a few questions regarding the challenges that international development cooperation faces in times of the financial and economic crisis. Below are answers by Mr. Thomas provided via email.

1. As the economic downturn around the world becomes ever more obvious, what challenges and opportunities do you think this brings for the EU and its member states’ development policies?

The economic crisis will have a major impact on developing countries and threatens to undermine progress towards the Millenium Development Goals. There are already considerable numbers of poor people suffering from the consequences. What is most important now ahead of the London Summit in April is that the EU shows leadership in its own response to the impact on developing countries.

The EU is the world's biggest donor and has played a key role in securing ambitious international agreements on aid over recent years. We must now ensure that we deliver on these commitments, particularly on the 2010 and 2015 targets for the amount and quality of aid given by EU Member States. This way we will make sure that every pound, crown or euro spent as aid really counts.

The London Summit on April 2 will be a key moment in shaping the international response to the crisis. It is an important opportunity to help stimulate global economic recovery, get trade back on track, promote sensible and much-needed reform of our international institutions – and ensure that developing countries are not forgotten in the response.
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As part of the Respekt Global Europe Series, organized by Respekt Institut in partnership with the British Embassy in Prague, Czech economists were invited to discuss the issues of the global financial and economic crisis and the London Summit of the G-20 coming up in early April. The idea was to provide feedback on the priorities envisioned for the summit from Czech experts' points of view. Several of them have also agreed to shoot short interviews on the fringes of the roundtable. Tomáš Sedláček, chief macroeconomic strategist at ČSOB and member of the National Economic Council at the Czech government provided opening remarks at the roundtable and shot the following interview after the event.

Tomáš Sedláček put focus on the need of the governments to stabilize public finance and decrease public debt. Martin Tlapa, Czech deputy minister of industry and trade, stressed the need to finalize the Doha Round of WTO negotiations and encourage international trade. Read more to see following videos. Otevřít celý příspěvek »

Caroline Flint, UK Minister of State for Europe, speaks with Marek Havrda of Respekt Institut about climate change and the challenges and opportunities it brings for the European Union regarding its competitiveness on the global market and its relationship with other major actors in the international community.

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