Speech by Prime Minister of Sweden, President of the Council of the European Union, Mr. Göran Persson at the opening of The Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries, May 14 2001

Your Majesty,
Secretary General,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour for the European Union to host this UN World conference. The challenge for this conference is great - the development of the least developed countries.

Fighting poverty is a moral question. It is part of the ongoing struggle for human dignity, for the equal value and right of all human beings, for democracy.

But there is also another dimension.
Poverty is not rational.

Today progressive forces in all parts of the world share the insight that leaving people behind means missing chances. We know that leaving people in the reality of poverty is to throw away knowledge and experience, to throw away creativity and dreams for the future. It means wasting the enormous power in people’s will to be a part of the development, to contribute.

* * *

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We live at a historic junction where global progress is within reach.

Never has the combined wealth been greater.
Never have science, medicine and technology, been more advanced;
Never have people in so many countries had the opportunity to participate in free and fair elections.

This junction – this open window in history – will not last forever. If we do not cease the moment of opportunity the window may close. And that is a loss for all of us.

Let this Third UN World Conference on the LDC's do justice to it’s cause and deliver instruments to the eradication of poverty world wide.

Welcome to Europe.