Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-06-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20060906.4.3-013"2
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"Mr President, Commission President, Commissioner, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, I would like to underline what my fellow Members, Mr Swoboda and Mr Lagendijk, have said. They have actually covered all the issues already but I would like to go into certain points in further detail.
There are four different representations in Kosovo. Firstly, the European Agency for Reconstruction which has done sterling work. We have the so-called fourth pillar within the UN framework where we are essentially responsible for economic matters as well as privatisation. The European Parliament has a delegation there and finally, we also have Council representation. All this in the small region that is Kosovo. The question must already be asked how all this is organised, how all these bodies are able to communicate with one another at all.
We now have this EU planning team, something we were able to establish when we were over there, which is responsible for ensuring the rule of law, but I find this all very restrictive. The tasks facing us are much more extensive. It will not do justice to the scale and importance of what we have planned for next year if we approach all of this in such a restricted manner.
We must endeavour to create capacities. We must help build up the civil administration. We must ensure that human rights and the rights of minorities are observed. How do we manage this when there are so many players of our calibre, including the OSCE, the European Ombudsman and others?
The UN, which is also represented there in all of our names, has certainly done a lot of good through UNMIK over recent years, although it has also made a lot of mistakes. It is probable that no other course of action was possible in rebuilding the civil and local administrations. Would we do any better? Do we have any men and women at all who want, and are able, to commit to working there, who are able to establish trust, who bring with them an adequate level of commitment to actually accomplish what we need on site?
To what extent can we, as the European Union, influence the police forces in Kosovo? We know that it is their intention to create a military organisation. To what extent are we maintaining more than just superficial contact with government bodies? What role may European troops soon play in Kosovo? I am aware that these are all questions to which we are awaiting a reply and which you are not yet in a position to answer, but I would like to say to you that I am personally afraid that we are not adequately prepared.
When we shift our attention to the neighbouring state of Bosnia Herzegovina, we see the difficulties facing us there and the multitude of problems that we still have to deal with. We have a single representative there who was, and actually still is, all-powerful, and who could do anything which can actually only be achieved in a democracy using democratic legislation as a basis. The problem is that we now have a situation there which is not up to the new challenges because people were not accustomed to taking responsibility themselves.
What we need in Kosovo is assistance to allow the Kosovars to help themselves. By ‘Kosovars’, I do not just mean Albanians, but also Serbs who live there and who we should actually expect to engage in the institutions. The only thing lacking as far as I am concerned is pressure on the Serbian Government in Belgrade to allow Serbs in Kosovo to participate. This is the real problem. If we listen to Mr Oliver Ivanovic in Serbia, we know what he would like to do were he allowed to. I believe that all that is lacking is pressure on the Serbian Government to give Serbs there the opportunity to build towards their future. This must certainly happen at some point or other because Serbia is no longer responsible for them.
I am underlining what my fellow Member, Mr Swoboda, said. With its neighbours, this region will become part of the European Union. We must therefore see to it that it is in a position to resolve these tasks, that it heeds human rights and the rights of minorities, that, with our help, it develops all the administrative capabilities required to also adopt and transpose our legislation, and to then find a seamless path into the European Union in conjunction with its neighbours, Serbia and Montenegro. I very much hope that we are able to offer this assistance. I venture, however, to express a degree of doubt on this issue."@en1
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