Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-06-Speech-4-274"
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"en.20000706.11.4-274"2
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".
First, let me stress that quite contrary to what has been suggested here, the Commission is very much aware of the political importance of Latin America and that in fact it has recently taken a number of initiatives that underline its great political importance for Europe. Secondly, let me point out that in the case of the disaster in Venezuela, it is still worth considering cause and effect as well as responsibility. And the Union did in fact provide extensive aid from the start and will continue to do so in future. This aid is directed at two things. First, it is aimed at supporting reconstruction in the federal state of Vargas. It is already becoming a little easier to identify the needs here, which was not the case in the beginning. I can understand people being impatient because progress is so slow in some areas. But the Venezuelan Government has not proposed any projects to us. That is not meant as some kind of covert criticism. It is probably difficult for the Venezuelan Government to decide very quickly what the priorities should be. So we first had to send a committee of experts to Venezuela to establish the priorities for ourselves. The results are now before us. In a few days’ time we will forward a communication to the Council on the measures to be supported and the funding to be provided.
The second aspect – which in my view is even more important than reconstruction aid – is aid for the prevention of disasters. That means we want to play our part in defining and initiating management programmes in relation to the natural risks in the federal states of Falcon Miranda and Jarakui. The disaster-prevention measures are very much in need of improvement, as we have indeed learned from this disaster in Venezuela. I believe the best way we can help the people in the long term is for us to concentrate on that.
As for funding these two measures, that is a very difficult question, because it really is a problem for the Commission to be constantly confronted by the Council and Parliament with their wishes as to what it should do and where it should help; but unfortunately no-one tells the Commission where it is to get the money from. After all, we cannot print it ourselves, as you know. We will find a way to finance these measures too and will make realistic proposals, incidentally also proposals that will take account of what the country itself can contribute in view of the sharp rise in its revenue from oil exports."@en1
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