Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-07-21-Speech-3-093"
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"en.19990721.6.3-093"2
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"(DE) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President-in Office of the Council, ever since 1989, Kosovo has constantly been the subject of debate in this Parliament. We have demanded action and warned against passivity on the part of the West. I make this point so that those who are new here today know that we have been talking about this for a very long time. Unfortunately, the Western governments" lack of action led to Milosevic first launching an assault on Croatia, then on Bosnia Herzegovina, and ultimately creating a bloodbath in Kosovo.
There are millions of refugees, umpteen thousand dead and misery everywhere we look in the region. Many years of turning a blind eye is one of the reasons why it was necessary to undertake a military strike. We are all glad that the joint action undertaken by the West and Russia brought the war to an end and made it possible for the Albanian refugees to return to their homeland. But major tasks now await us which we must tackle energetically and efficiently, ensuring above all that we do not exclude the citizens of Kosovo in the process.
The errors that we made when undertaking reconstruction work in Bosnia Herzegovina must not be repeated. If the salaries received by the international personnel in Bosnia Herzegovina are not in reasonable proportion to the aid which is received on site, then that is unacceptable and must not be repeated in Kosovo under any circumstances. But we must also avoid making other errors of the kind that the Council is prepared to make now. If the Council were to locate the Kosovo agency in Thessaloniki then inefficiency would be the order of the day. This agency must be located in Kosovo, and not 200 Kilometres away in another country, when all the UN, OSCE, and UNHCR organisations and agencies are located in Kosovo.
However, I am convinced that Thessaloniki is the best location for the headquarters of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe. I urgently call upon the Council and also the Greek government to vote for this option. Permit me also to mention at this point that I cannot begin to see the point of next week"s spectacle in Sarajevo. One and a half days of spectacle will cost EUR 1.5 million, which is out of all proportion to the achievements that won"t be made that day, since all the things that are supposed to be achieved there have already been decided on in Cologne.
How many small and medium-sized enterprises could we set up in Bosnia Herzegovina with this one and a half million euro? How many jobs could we create and how many more people could return than have been able to hitherto? Now just a word for Serbia"s benefit. A warm welcome to two representatives of the Serbian Opposition in the stand. Esteemed colleagues, the Serbian resistance to the Milosevic regime must now be given all the help that we can offer, unlike two years ago when we left the Opposition to their own devices for fear of antagonising the regime. Let us at last learn from our mistakes.
(Applause)"@en1
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