Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-169"
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"en.20000503.10.3-169"2
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"Mr President, let me first of all thank my honourable friend for his extremely thoughtful report and for the care and attention that he has devoted to the issue of uprooted people in Asia and Latin America. It is common to all the speakers in the Chamber and to others outside that it is an excellent report but, speaking for myself, I would not have expected any less from my honourable friend.
However, as you know, the evaluation is already under way and I will make any interim reports available as soon as they are produced. I want to make that commitment unequivocally. I hope that Parliament would be willing to agree this approach. There have been references to the new regulation. I can confirm that the new regulation is under preparation. It will need to take into consideration the findings of the evaluation exercise and, of course, before presenting it to the legislative authority, we in the Commission will have to ensure that we are able to mobilise the necessary human resources for its effective implementation.
Too often, in my experience of just seven months, we undertake to do things without having first made sure that we have got the resources to carry them through and it is important for us to be honest about what we want to do and how we can achieve it.
Before closing let me once again thank Parliament for its support in extending the validity of this important instrument. I can assure honourable Members that I have taken account of the criticisms and of the aspirations that have been expressed during the course of this debate. I am old enough and experienced enough in political life to recognise the difference between a standing ovation and a raspberry, or a bronx cheer as the Americans would call it, and I do not wish to sit through another debate about a subject as important as this and hear it dominated by well-meant criticisms. So I hope that we can do better by the time we next discuss this important subject.
We are dealing with important technical details but, above all, we are dealing, as honourable Members have pointed out, with human tragedies that lie behind the need for all these measures and that is why we have to ensure that our own response is as rapid and as effective as possible.
Regulation 443/97 on aid to uprooted people is an important instrument clearly, an instrument to deliver aid that is not covered by humanitarian assistance and the honourable Member Ms Maes made this distinction extremely clearly. It supports projects implemented by international organisations like the UN and the UNHCR and NGOs and these measures are designed to improve living conditions, not only for returnees but also for the communities into which they will integrate. In that context particular importance is attached to clearing the land of mines, a point which my honourable friend referred to, rebuilding farming systems, supporting secure livelihoods and embracing key health and education challenges.
A number of honourable Members have made clear the good and practical work done as a result of this regulation. I noted in particular what the honourable gentleman, Mr Howitt, said about geographical balance and one or two other honourable Members referred to that as well.
I also noted what the honourable gentleman Dr Paisley said about our moral duties to those who are uprooted. Dr Paisley and I have not always seen eye to eye on every subject but I hope that this is a subject on which we can see eye to eye and even share quotations from both the Old and the New Testament.
The Commission started preparations for the renewal of this regulation in Spring 1999. However, these discussions were delayed by the former Commission’s resignation last year. It was decided as an interim step to propose an extension of the current regulation up to the end of the year 2000. A Commission activity report covering the three years of implementation of the regulation from 1997 to 1999 was presented in its preliminary version to Mr Miranda, the President of the Committee on Development and Cooperation of Parliament, and, of course, to the rapporteur.
In parallel, preliminary findings of an on-going external evaluation on the implementation of the regulation were also transmitted. The final evaluation report will be submitted to the Parliament by September of this year.
Now to the amendments: the Commission broadly agrees with the four amendments which have been tabled by the Parliament. However, concerning the first amendment I would like to stress again that the draft of the activity report has already been made available to the Committee on Development and Cooperation and that official submission will take place next June at the latest.
The Commission agrees with amendments two and three since they reflect the existing framework of interinstitutional cooperation with regard to budgetary discipline and comitology.
Now let me come to the fourth amendment. I recognise that the Parliament would like to see the independent evaluation report extremely soon. A number of honourable Members have argued that you should see that by July. We believe however, that given the late contracting of the 1999 programme, which means that some activities are only now getting under way, it would be better to finalise the report, which must be a thorough and comprehensive document, a month or two later, say by September. That will give us a reasonable period to evaluate 1999’s activities."@en1
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