Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-15-Speech-4-158"
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"en.20000615.6.4-158"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to say that the political situation in the entire region we are discussing today by no means justifies complacency or even guarded optimism. Quite the opposite – a realistic assessment suggests that there are only a few faint glimmers of hope on a dark horizon.
That brings me to Kosovo, where ethnically motivated violence still dominates everyday life. We must condemn ethnically motivated violence regardless of who the perpetrators and the victims are, that is regardless of who is at the receiving end of ethnic violence and who commits it. The European Union will always condemn such violence with equal force.
The acts of violence being perpetrated against the Serbian minority and also against the Roma minorities are unacceptable in our eyes, just as the violence committed against the Kosovars just a few months ago was unacceptable. Just as we condemn the trials against Kosovars held in custody in Serbia, we welcome the reopening of the proceedings in the case of Flora Brovina, which has previously been the subject of resolutions adopted by this House.
We call upon all parties in Kosovo to solve the vital issue of missing persons and prisoners as a matter of urgency. We fully support KFOR’s efforts to maintain law and order in Kosovo and to protect the public as a whole. The Commission shares Parliament’s view that sending an international police force is highly important. Not only is the credibility of the policies of the European Union and its Member States at stake, it is also imperative, if we wish to achieve our objectives in Kosovo, for us to provide the minimum level of police presence required to guarantee stability.
Unless an atmosphere of stability and safety can be created, which will also make it possible for Kosovar Serbs to return, then there will be no true peace in Kosovo. It is in everyone’s interest to ensure cooperation between all Kosovo’s citizens, on the basis of common institutions. It is clear to us that a continuing substantial level of EC aid will be required. This aid will be provided via the reconstruction agency and the fourth pillar.
Against this background, the Commission welcomes the conclusions of the most recent European Parliament mission to Kosovo. The Commission also supports UNMIK’s endeavours in the area of local administration by means of twinning projects and by advertising posts in UNMIK’s civil administration and the pillars of the reconstruction programme as widely as possible in all the Member States.
I consider it extraordinarily important that the European Parliament has today once again held an in-depth debate on the resolution before us on the situation in the Western Balkans, and that this not only expresses our concern but above all demonstrates our shared determination not to leave our work in this region only half done. We have started it and we are determined to bring it to a successful conclusion.
We are dealing with an ever more hard-line dictatorship in Serbia. In Bosnia, the structures of civil society are still so weak that only the presence of international troops is preventing violence from breaking out. In Kosovo, violence is a daily event, and the democratic forces in Montenegro are at risk from threats from outside and from polarisation within. That is the situation we are dealing with.
Let there be no mistake about this: all this is due to the disastrous actions of one man, the clique surrounding him, and his regime – Milosevic. The entire instability of the region is due to him. As long as this regime continues to exist, so will the instability in this region. Therefore the foremost demand that the European Union must make, again and again, and which it must back up with all the power at its disposal, is this: Milosevic must go!
The media of course play an important role in this context. So it is not surprising that the Milosevic regime is now taking a harder line than before against the independent media. As I see it, this is a sign of weakness. A time when a regime has to repress any freedom of expression is a time when it feels particularly weak and under attack. This is normally a sign of the beginning of the end. But in this case, unfortunately, the end could last a very long time. That is why it is right that demands are being made here for the European Union to use its resources to bolster the independent media in Serbia. We have been doing that for years. It is not, for example, as if objective reporting is not penetrating into the region. We should not always hide our light under a bushel, and we should not always talk just about American broadcasters. I must point out that there is a whole string of outstanding and skilled stations broadcasting to foreign countries which have for many years, and to an ever greater extent, been transmitting high-quality, objective and valuable programming to these regions, and they have received European support for this. If it is possible to do yet more in this area, then the Commission is of course willing to look into this.
We have, of course, already reacted to media repression in many cases in the past. And in the present situation the Commission has adopted and financed a whole raft of measures which I do not wish to describe in detail now, but which always aimed to enable independent media either to continue to appear, in the case of the print media, or to broadcast, in the case of audio-visual media, or else to open up alternative channels for the media.
This is part of the overall project developed by the EU to positively influence events in Serbia and to demonstrate that democracy really does have advantages for the public and is good and right. Let me mention the other examples from this overall project. First, there is of course the “Energy for Democracy” programme, under which cities governed by a democratic opposition are supplied with fuel oil in the winter. Then there is the follow-up project in the area of education, entitled “Schools for a democratic Serbia”, which is currently being completed. And we are currently also discussing programmes run by the Member States themselves with organisations in Serbia and with the Member States, for example a programme entitled “Asphalt – roads to democracy”.
I believe that it is very important to demonstrate that democratic developments in Serbia will be rewarded and will receive a positive response. Against this background I would like to stress that we regard it as being particularly important to strengthen and stabilise the democratic developments that have already started in Croatia, as Croatia in particular is also capable of exerting a positive influence on Serbia.
With regard to Montenegro, I must say that we certainly welcome the democratic way in which the most recent municipal elections in Podgorica and Herceg Novi have been conducted. The very fact that these elections were held in near peaceful circumstances is unusual for this region, and we have to be grateful for small mercies. Overall, the EU is supporting the democratic reform process in Montenegro in a wide-ranging and active way. Significant financial support has been granted to Montenegro, so that since 1998 over EUR 115 million has either been spent or committed.
I am also pleased, in view of all the laborious history of this, that the Council has now finally agreed to grant Montenegro an emergency support budget of EUR 20 million. I am being very serious when I say that the significance of this emergency programme in terms of giving Montenegro a stable and democratic future is greater than simply the amount of money involved may suggest. I therefore hope that it will soon receive the approval of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets."@en1
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