Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-14-Speech-2-175"
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"en.20001114.7.2-175"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, I am aware that the Balkans are not the most promising area for optimism. However, I do not believe I am being over-optimistic if I say that the European Union is harvesting the fruits of coordinated and persistent action. After the tragedy that the Balkans suffered, these fruits first appeared a few months ago in Croatia with free elections and a regime eager to respect human rights, and have now revealed themselves in Belgrade, where the citizens have confirmed their desire to live together in peace and freedom and to take their place in the family of Europe.
We must not disappoint them in their expectations, and now more than ever these countries need our help. We must continue this process of stabilising the region and prepare them for a longer-term perspective of integration in the institutions of Europe. In doing this, of course, we are staking our credibility and our own stability. But if we want to help them, we must do so more effectively and in a more coordinated fashion than we have done so far; otherwise there will occur what Mr Lagendijk has called the loss of visibility of the European Union, which bears the largest financial burden in the Balkans and yet is far less visible than countries like the United States, which can react practically in real time to any need that arises in the country. So much so that when I was in Bosnia-Herzegovina and visited a village, they would greet me jubilantly with ‘It is so good that you Americans are here to help us.’ The European Union’s action had become that invisible.
In the report on aid to the western Balkans that I have drawn up, working in close collaboration with Mr Lagendijk, on the two topics that we are dealing with today – a fine example of cooperation between two committees – we have recognised a number of limitations. On the one hand there is a geographical limitation, which suggests that the agency’s action should be expanded to embrace not only Kosovo but all Yugoslavia. We have also found some functional limitations. First, the international organisations that carry out these operations, such as UNMIK in Kosovo or the office of the High Representative in Sarajevo, also need to benefit from this aid.
In addition, there are several measures – I am referring particularly to the CARDS programme – that should go beyond reconstruction and extend to training, education and the reconstruction of civil society in close collaboration with NGOs. It is vital that NGOs should collaborate in this field, and also that there should be some coordination among them, if we really want their action to be more effective and to reach all parts of those regions.
We must also highlight the media. The media in that region have often been responsible for the tragedy they have been through, so it is essential to have a completely free media that acts in accordance with the rules that prevail in our democracies. It is also very important to make the judiciary really independent. We have also come across some operational limitations, which are among the causes of the lack of visibility. Operational limitations in the aid management system. Sometimes there is too much bureaucracy, too much red tape, and too much vacillation when the aid is granted. Therefore it is important for the CARDS programme management committee to be a committee that confines itself to the general lines of multiannual planning and does not try to carry out everyday micro-management at too detailed a scale, because otherwise we may again have the same problems as in the past.
It is also important that the work of the CARDS management committee and the work of the Kosovo Reconstruction Agency should not get mixed up, or be duplicated or overlap; instead there should be a perfect division of duties. It is also essential to strengthen the role of the European Parliament, and I believe that with the amendments, which are likely to be voted for tomorrow, the European Parliament will be able to perform a greater consultative role in a process of interinstitutional collaboration.
Lastly, I want to mention the financial package. Mr President, you are perfectly aware that nowadays the miracle of the loaves and the fishes is most unlikely to be repeated, and with the precious few loaves and fishes we now have available it is going to be practically impossible for us to tackle all of the European Union’s external obligations. We have to give more effective and more coordinated aid, gathering together all the scattered bits and pieces.
I conclude by repeating the Commission’s own words – that these two proposals are the cornerstone of a process that should lead these countries, which have had and still have so many problems, to become fully integrated into the structures of Europe. I am firmly convinced that the Balkans do have a solution and that the Balkan curse can be lifted, but for this they need all our support and these two programmes aim to provide it."@en1
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