(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

Annex V. Efforts regarding land grabbing
1. The European Parliament and EU Member States
The European Parliament has expressed several times its concerns about the land
grabbing phenomenon. MEPs have ask several questions about issues of land
grabbing in developing countries, and in particular in Africa, including specific
questions about “land grabbing in developing countries”, 547 the “exploitation of
farmland in Africa by European companies” 548
The Directorate-General for External Policies of the parliament released a report in
March 2011 which recommends, amongst other things, to include social standards in
the sustainability criteria and to strengthen the role of human rights in international
agreements and treaties. 549 However, to date, the European Parliament does not seem
to have concretely followed up on these topics.
Some EU Member States have also taken steps to address land grabbing. France, in
particular, has been pro-active. A report led by the Technical Committee on “Land
Tenure and development” was released in June 2010 550 together with a position paper
of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. 551 This paper outlines the position of
France which consists of three themes: 1) develop knowledge and expertise on land
issues, 2) reinforce global governance on land issues, including by going beyond
voluntary measures, and 3) better integrate land issues in development assistance.
2. The European Commission
The European Commission has indicated that it fully and explicitly acknowledges the
increasing number of large-scale investments in agricultural land in developing
countries and their potential negative impacts.
The Commission is aware of increased investor interest in land
for food and biofuel production, including in Ethiopia where
around 1.2 million hectares of land has been transferred to
domestic and foreign investors.
The Commission takes very seriously the possible social,
economic and environmental impacts of large-scale
investments in agricultural land in developing countries. 552
As an immediate response, the Commission specified that is uses high-level
dialogue as one of the tools to address the issue. For instance, land grabbing was
discussed with the government of Ethiopia during the visit of the Commissioner
responsible for Development in January 2011. 553 The EU also contributes to capacitybuilding
of civil society organisations and networks in Africa through funding, as for
example for the International Land Coalition, with the aim of promoting secure access
to land and other resources. 554
In 2010, the EU committed to support the implementation of the 2009 Land Policy
Guidelines in Africa. 555 These guidelines, which were developed during three years by
the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
and the African Development Bank, were formally adopted by Heads of States and
Government of the African Union in July 2009. They give an overview of the historical,
128