Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-04-Speech-4-249"
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"en.20030904.11.4-249"2
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".
Mr President, the Commission welcomes the peace agreement signed by the belligerent parties, civil society and political parties of the country on 18 August 2003.
We are still concerned about the ongoing fighting. It is very important that ECOWAS fully deploys its peacekeeping troops to ensure that the peace agreement is respected on the ground.
The figure available to me as to how many troops have actually been deployed is 2127. ECOWAS is doing what it is expected to do. We hope that the presence of this force will permit a rapid resumption of humanitarian assistance and an end to the atrocities that, especially for women and children, have been terrible in Liberia.
We have been informed by ECOWAS that deployment should be completed by 9 September 2003. It has appointed a special representative for Liberia to oversee the conduct of the peacekeeping force and monitor the implementation of the peace agreement.
ECOWAS is not in a position to carry the financial burden of these operations alone, and following the proposal from the Commission the Council decided to make EUR 50 million available to support the peace process broadly defined in Liberia. This money comes from allocated funds for Liberia that were never used: because of the situation we could not work there normally. For both the 7th and the 8th EDF, Liberia was more or less out of the circuit. Some things were possible, but only very little.
About EUR 8 million of the EUR 50 million are earmarked to support the ECOWAS peace-keeping operation and for the creation of the office of the special representative. The remaining funds should be used for a demobilisation and reintegration programme as well as for institution-building and the restoration of democratic structures.
In this regard, I was pleased to listen to Mr Posselt's contribution. These were wise words warning against the arrogant approach of taking it for granted that a rapid process of elections does it. This, unfortunately, is not the case.
We need to be pragmatic and rediscover the practical value of the notion of governance. First stability or peace, then governance, then democratisation and then democracy itself. We have to be pragmatic and not allow ourselves to surrender to the temptation of prescribing those nice things that we take for granted here in our environment. We have to show confidence and be a more realistic partner. Liberia has been going through the most terrible, traumatic times.
We also welcome the UN Security Council decision to establish a stabilisation force for Liberia to take over responsibility from ECOWAS as from 1 October 2003. Also, the contributions from Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for the peacekeeping force in Liberia are very welcome and we see a strong case for mobilising what I would now call 'partnership stamina'. We tried, over the years, to do something meaningful in Liberia, but with Mr Taylor around this was almost impossible. Regionally, it is extremely important that the opportunity now at hand is not missed."@en1
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