Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-16-Speech-4-017"
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"en.19990916.2.4-017"2
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"Mr President, I was in Kosovo last winter and wrote a report to Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. I visited a number of private aid organisations. Their biggest problem was the Commission’s centralist working methods and the unduly long time it therefore took to deal with matters. The Commission’s local representative had to ask about everything in Brussels because the people in Brussels were so dreadfully afraid of mistakes being made. I would say to the Commissioner, however, that this is not how you combat fraud and mistakes. If the work is to be made efficient, it should be delegated. People locally need to have powers to make the necessary arrangements to act quickly and efficiently. If fraud and irregularities are there, the hammer should fall heavily upon those responsible locally. It is therefore quite naturally unacceptable, Mr President, if the chain of command is now to be still longer, that is to say if the agency in Kosovo has to wait not only for orders from Brussels but also from Thessaloniki. This must not happen. The Liberal Group is shocked by the horse trading which apparently went on when Mr Hombach was appointed and the office located in Thessaloniki. We hope this doesn’t cause too much damage. We do not want the people who are having a hard enough time as it is managing the construction work in Pristina also having to struggle with additional bureaucracy in Thessaloniki.
Finally, Mr President, I would urge that, as far as possible, local, civil representatives of the Albanian population are relied upon, that the Albanians’ own talents are used and that they are not helped with things they can work out for themselves. The most important means of opposing KLA gangs, which are to be stopped and fought against whenever they drive away Serbs, is to mobilise the civil leaders in Kosovo. There are in fact parties which have won 80% of the votes cast in elections. They are there all the time. Their leaders are there all the time. They are ready to take over. And locally, too, there are leaders who can take over. They are the best means of opposing the KLA, which I have only very, very little sympathy for."@en1
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