Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-217"
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"en.20080312.18.3-217"2
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"Madam President, first of all, please allow me to take a little more time, because this is a very important issue for me.
First, the trade and cooperation agreement: it is a political endeavour, setting the basis for contractual relations between the European Union and Iraq for the first time. Our hope is that this will help Iraq to address its own reform agenda and facilitate its reintegration in the international community after years of isolation. We have just wrapped up the fourth round of talks. Rapid progress continues on areas from human rights to combating terrorism, from energy cooperation to the environment.
Secondly, the neighbours’ meetings, which the President-in-Office of the Council mentioned, could contribute very substantially to reducing interference, improving security and allowing political dialogue and reconciliation among the various factions. I have personally invested a good deal of effort to help this happen, having participated in two conferences, in Sharm el Sheikh and in Istanbul. I will continue to do so in the future if I can, to keep pressing home the need for Iraq’s neighbours to take up their responsibilities. Visits to Baghdad by the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and most recently even the Iranian President are to be taken as good signs in this direction.
As Ms Gomes points out in her report, the task of helping Iraq stand on its own feet cannot fall on the shoulders of the donor community or the Iraqis alone.
On the subject of assistance, I need not remind this House that the EUR 829 million of Community funds devoted to Iraq since funding started under my predecessor in 2003 were committed with the full support of the Council and the European Parliament.
We have never been naive about the difficulty of delivering an effective programme in Iraq. We did as this Parliament and all our Member States recommended, by working with the UN and its agencies, with the World Bank and the multi-donor Trust Fund. Working with them was the only viable option available. The United Nations had an extremely hard time after the assassination of Sergio Vieira de Mello and a good part of its staff when its office in Baghdad was blown up. The new Special Representative, Staffan de Mistura, has taken on his job with remarkable commitment and is highly appreciated. You recently met the Deputy UN Special Representative, David Shearer, and I think you had a good exchange of views on their mission and the risks still existing.
I could mention many projects, but I shall do that when I answer your questions later on. At the moment I shall just say that I think it is important substantive work, all the more important given the very limited capacity – and I agree with Ms Gomes on this – of the Iraqi Government to deliver results. From basic needs in health and education, through assistance with democratisation, elections and human rights promotion, to humanitarian and refugee support, we have persisted with an extremely comprehensive programme, using the best available means in the most challenging circumstances.
We have tried to ensure that specific attention is paid to the needs of vulnerable groups, not least displaced Iraqis, whether inside Iraq or in the neighbouring states. Last year a substantial package of EUR 50 million was provided for refugee support. The Commission also intends to allocate EUR 20 million from its humanitarian budget line for 2008 in support of IDPs/refugees and the most vulnerable groups in Iraq. We have also started some bilateral projects, but there is no ideal solution. In fact, every option has inherent and formidable drawbacks.
As I have already mentioned – and I am coming to a conclusion – last week on my instructions, my two directors responsible for Iraq from the External Relations DG and EuropeAid visited Baghdad with their teams. They held fruitful but very frank discussions with the Iraqi authorities and other players. The mission confirmed Iraq’s precarious security, the political and economic situation that I described earlier, the extreme weakness of the Iraqi institutions after Saddam Hussein’s years and the ensuing war, and the key role of our small delegation in Baghdad.
The Iraqi Government expressed its eagerness to work with the European Union. On this basis, we shall try to fund, alongside other bilateral and international donors, and we will help to strengthen the institutions and the capacity of the administration of a state which remains weak. We shall explore ways of taking more direct action as Parliament has asked – bearing in mind the security environment – and we would like to ensure the maximum efficiency, visibility and accountability of our assistance.
First, let me commend Ms Gomes and all the other Members of Parliament involved in the preparation of this important report. Ms Gomes has visited Iraq twice since December in order to get the clearest possible picture of what is and what is not happening in the country. I have sent my two directors in charge of the area to Iraq, one of whom, Mr Tomás Duplá del Moral, is here with me today. I will tell you more about that later.
Ms Gomes’s analysis is clear, comprehensive and above all it starts from the right place. We have no choice but to deal with the challenges Iraq faces now and in the future.
Five years after the fall of Saddam Hussein we may be entering a new phase of a gradual process. However, the process is still fragile, limited and unstable.
The security situation seems to be slightly better, partly as a consequence of the US surge, but also because of two other important factors: the activities of the Sunni Awakening Councils, armed and paid by the US, and most importantly Moqtada al-Sadr’s ceasefire, which has now been extended for another six months. The number of deaths among Iraqi civilians still remains very high and there is great uncertainty about the sustainability of these efforts and of improvements. Turkish incursions in the north contribute to complicating the situation, no matter how calm and measured the central and the Kurdish regional governments’ reactions may have been – at least for now.
On the political front, the Legislative Council approved an important package of laws: the 2008 budget, the provincial powers law and a limited amnesty related to the debaathification process, thereby giving satisfaction to Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. However, with the Presidential Council’s rejection of the provincial powers law, there is still uncertainty as to whether this limited progress can be consolidated.
The economic front shows a total reliance on the oil sector, difficulty in attracting foreign and even domestic investment, and lack of job creation opportunities. Collection of taxes and tariffs is very incipient and the amounts remain marginal. The capacity to spend the investments planned in the budget, while growing, is still limited. However, economic activity, including investments, seems at this stage to have more potential in the safest Kurdish area.
National reconciliation remains central in the political agenda and there are many initiatives and foreign-driven events. However, while domestic efforts to build up genuine Iraqi ownership and perspectives on the future of the country continue, a shared and clear vision is still lacking, and efforts are guided by sectarian, religious or ethnic interests, considerations or grievances. This is also what my director reported to me.
Let me take this opportunity to remind you of what we are already doing in and with Iraq and what we can set out to do under still difficult circumstances in the future. Our intervention extends over a wide range of activities covering the political, economic, assistance and humanitarian aspects."@en1
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