Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-17-Speech-3-037"
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"en.20031217.2.3-037"2
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". – Mr President, let me start by reacting to the last contribution. There is always the problem and risk of indirect consequences of supporting a government in a difficult situation like this. But we are very cautiously doing the right thing by not turning our backs on the country, but instead finding areas where we can do something meaningful, also bearing in mind that there is a legitimate government in the country. We have used the Cotonou system to organise dialogue and to establish benchmarks along the way leading back to normalisation, and we are linking and conditioning our support to the Marcoussis Agreement and the process there.
I have already addressed the specific aspect of fisheries. Let me say a few words on the peace facility in response to Mrs Kinnock and Mrs Karamanou. I very much welcomed the conclusions of the European Council last week relating to the peace facility. It was clearly stated in these conclusions that the Council recognises the importance of this peace facility and it also makes the point quite clearly that the financing of these peace operations will create a noteworthy and important impulse in strengthening the capacity of the African people to create and preserve peace on the whole continent. So there was no reference whatsoever to any ways of doing this other than what is implicitly referred to here as an all-African effort. It is the case that we foresee, and the African Union and the Commission also expect that regional organisations should be used as implementing agents for handling individual cases. However, it is clear from the whole architecture of the proposal that decision-making is supposed to be the responsibility of the African Union. This is also the prevailing view in the discussions that are taking place inside the EU. This is very important, because stability and African ownership of this process is the key to success.
We look forward to the next steps in the chain of implementation, to take place shortly.
I should like to say to Mrs Karamanou that the peace facility would not cover the cost of supporting women's organisations or other activities like that. It is very important that this facility should only cover those actions relating directly to peacekeeping or peace-building activities which cannot be funded by other sources. That is what is new in this and why we are moving into a new area of activity and a new method of funding and decision-making. All this is new for good reasons, and we have to be very careful not to overlap with what can in fact be funded through other sources, otherwise the opportunity would be wasted.
My final remarks on the situation in Côte d'Ivoire and what we are trying to do: we are not in a situation where we have cut off or frozen spending. We have not suspended the Cotonou working relationship, but we have to adapt to the situation. We are gradually trying to move forward and link it to a process of reconciliation. In fact, the country strategy paper and the national indicative programme, totalling EUR 298 million, were discussed by the EDF Committee on 20 November and we will try ensure that the implementation of this is linked to the implementation of the Marcoussis Agreement. We will include interventions such as promoting security of land tenure, and good governance will also be an important element, along with support for the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections. This is a very sad case, but we have to be stubbornly optimistic."@en1
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