Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-240"
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"en.20080312.18.3-240"2
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"Madam President, it was a good debate and it showed that we want to use the golden opportunity to finally reconstruct Iraq and make it a stable country in the Middle East, because I fully agree that this will be a very important goal for all of us.
I would first like to clearly state that you may rest assured that we will pursue our course of action. Thank you for the positive words concerning our Head of Delegation who works there with a few staff members in very difficult circumstances – housed by the British Embassy, by the way. He and his people are doing a very good job.
We have been working with the UN Trust Fund because, at the time, nothing else was possible. After the visit by my directors and their assessment, we will cautiously see what we can do regarding capacity-building and institution-building. We fully understand that this is very dear to many of you, but please also understand that security costs will be very high. Whatever we do there directly will be very costly, otherwise it would not be possible.
Outside the Green Zone, circumstances are very difficult, except perhaps in the few areas where there are fewer security problems, one of these being the north. I do not rule out gradually working more directly, for instance in the north, but I must stress that we always have to be sure that we do not discriminate between different groups. This is something I would also like to say to Mr Belder. This is how we have been working with our projects. We have always tried to have projects that include all groups, including the Christian groups that are finding it very difficult in Iraq at this time with this Government.
Having said this, I would just like to bring to the attention of many of you who do not always see what we are doing that, for instance, we prepared successfully for the general elections held in 2005. We have rehabilitated hundreds of primary and secondary schools, which is not only for the benefit of the schools but also for the pupils. Erasmus programmes are also open for some Iraqis, so we are pursuing that. We are also producing and distributing millions of schoolbooks for six million primary and secondary students. This is very basic but necessary.
At the same time we have rehabilitated almost 200 primary healthcare centres and 10 hospitals. We have given support to the completion of eight immunisation rounds, each involving 4.7 million children aged under five. We have completely rehabilitated the national drug quality control laboratory. I could go on and on.
I think the Commission has done a great deal, on behalf of the Union, in difficult circumstances. Now, we are aware that the key question will be how much we can do regarding capacity-building. You can rest assured that we will devote a good part of our resources to this, always depending, as I have said, on the security situation. According to our last assessment this is unfortunately not yet sustainable.
I would like to say a few words about refugees. I have mentioned that we, the Commission, have naturally been working to assist refugees. The entire package for last year was EUR 50 million from various Commission instruments. These funds are aimed not only at supporting the IDPs in Iraq but also to help the Governments of Syria and Jordan in their countries. We are of course in close contact with these countries. We have given EUR 80 million to Syria and EUR 32 million to Jordan because in this small country the large influx of refugees has created a big problem.
Finally, I would just like to say that I am as convinced as the Council that the dialogue that the Parliament will now have with the Ad Hoc Delegation for Iraq represents an excellent improvement and progress. We can only work together on that. Let me assure you that we have been trying from the beginning to have a transparent flow of our money channelled through the United Nations. In the future this will be channelled more and more directly."@en1
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