Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-31-Speech-3-123"
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"en.20010131.6.3-123"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by thanking the honourable Member, Mr Miranda, for putting his question to the Council and, in that way, giving us the opportunity to discuss the important issue of how the European Union can best contribute to peace and mutual understanding in Colombia. Let me also begin by saying that the specific situation in Colombia and what the European Union may be able to do in that connection were matters which the Swedish Presidency had the opportunity to discuss face to face with President Pastrana during his visit to Stockholm last week.
To facilitate the changeover to other products for export, Colombia is also covered by the Generalised System of Preference, or GSP, and, since 1990, also by the Occasional Extra System of Preference. A number of chemical precursors were signed in 1995 between the European Union and the Andean countries and have now come into force.
The Council has not expressed an opinion on the United States’s contribution to Plan Colombia, a significant part of which is intended to be used in the fight against the drugs trade, because this is an issue affecting bilateral relations between Colombia and the United States.
In conclusion, I should like to remind the honourable Member of the guidelines – adopted as part of the orientation debate at the meeting of the General Affairs Council on 22 and 23 January of this year – for reinforced operational coordination between the Community, represented by the Commission, and the Member States in the area of external aid. Hopefully, this will help us in the future to adopt an integrated approach to situations such as that in Colombia.
The European Union is aware of the serious, multifaceted and interdependent problems faced by Colombia. We believe that an integrated strategy is absolutely essential if it is to be possible to solve these problems.
On several occasions, the European Union has confirmed its intention, as far as possible and in the most appropriate way, to support the efforts to get a peace process under way in Colombia, founded upon respect for human rights and basic freedoms. In its statement on 19 January of this year, the European Union expressed its deep concern about the fact that the armed conflict in Colombia had become more serious and at the fact that the suffering of the civilian population had increased. The Union is convinced that the conflict can only be solved by means of a negotiated agreement and therefore calls for the peace negotiations to be resumed.
Since October 1999 when President Pastrana, here in the European Parliament, asked for the EU’s help for his plan for peace, prosperity and a strengthening of state power, the Council has had the opportunity, in response to a number of questions from honourable Members, to repeat the main features of the European Union’s position on Colombia and to inform the European Parliament of the way in which the work on this important matter has developed.
At its meeting on 9 October of last year, the Council confirmed its political support for the efforts to achieve peace that have been made by the democratically elected bodies in Colombia, as well as its desire to join the international community in actively monitoring the negotiation process – a process which, within the framework of consultation with civil society and with the agreement of all parties involved, should lead to a peace founded upon human rights, humanitarian law and basic freedoms.
Within the context of a continuation of the current peace efforts, the Council also gave notice of its intention to introduce a practical and independent European programme for socio-economic and institutional aid to the peace process in Colombia – a programme aimed at promoting and safeguarding respect for human rights, humanitarian law and basic freedoms, at improving living conditions for the local population, at encouraging the replacement of crops and the protection of bio-diversity and at supporting the programme of structural reforms in all areas which give succour to the armed conflict.
At the second meeting with the support group for the peace process in Colombia, held in Bogotá on 24 October last year, the Commission stated that the Community’s support for President Pastrana’s peace efforts would amount to EUR 105 million during the period 2000–2006. Approximately EUR 40 million of these funds would be allocated to economic and social development and the fight against poverty, approximately EUR 30 million to so-called alternative development and EUR 25 million to support for reforms of the judicial system and for the promotion of human rights.
The Commission has also stated that it is going to increase the additional support granted to disaster aid projects through ECHO. The Member States are still studying how much is to be set aside for a European aid package for Colombia, but the majority have already communicated their intentions on this matter. The Commission has undertaken to coordinate the efforts to set up an aid package of this kind.
When it comes to the fight against drugs – discussed under paragraph 8 of Parliament’s resolution of 7 September of last year, to which the honourable Member refers – the European Union has also emphasised the crucial importance of combating this scourge which directly affects all European states and their citizens. The EU has set up a mechanism for cooperating with Latin American and Caribbean countries on drug issues, a mechanism whose action plan was approved in April 1999 and received considerable political support from Heads of State and Government at the 1999 Rio de Janeiro Summit between the European Union and Latin American and Caribbean countries."@en1
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