A few weeks before the 8th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) this December in Geneva, the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, expressed concern over the deterioration of the Doha Development Round negotiations launched in 2001. For ALDE, this stumbling block is certainly bad news for global growth, but most of all it is an additional obstacle for the economic development of the least developed countries (LDCs). European Liberals and Democrats urge the European Commission to reach an agreement that benefits at least the first fifty LDCs, 32 of whom are WTO members, which represent 12% of the most deprived population on the planet.

Niccolo Rinaldi (IDV, Italy) said during the debate preceding the vote on the resolution today: "We are talking about countries with a per capita income of just over one euro per day. At this level, there are no demands we can make on these countries, rather we should be asking which concessions we can give them.

"We ask the European Commission to conduct an analysis of measures to ensure that the Doha round brings improvement to LDCs. We argue in particular for access to markets free of tariffs and quotas, and technical assistance in marketing their products. We also ask the European Commission to support the extension of the TRIPS waiver regarding pharmaceutical patents and data protection , allowing poor countries to import generic drugs still under patent, and letting producing countries continue to export drugs under compulsory license beyond 2016. "