Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-31-Speech-3-124"
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"en.20010131.6.3-124"2
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". – The EU has offered both political and financial support to the peace initiative of President Pastrana of Colombia. We are well aware of the concerns that the military component of Plan Colombia has created especially among representatives of civil society both in Colombia and in Europe.
Summing up, we very much welcome this debate and we very much support the line expressed by Mr Miranda.
The EU reservations about some aspects of Plan Colombia are well known to President Pastrana and to his government. The Commission does not intend to take part in any initiative with a military dimension.
In terms of the fight against drugs we will continue to subscribe to the global and balanced approach endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly special session on drugs of June 1998. Thus in Bogota last October the EU stressed the need not to put alternative development projects at risk by non-selective operation of illicit crop eradication. Within this context we continue to focus on positive measures such as demand reduction, promoting new crops, offering market opportunities in Europe and strengthening the rule of law.
As honourable Members may know, the EU decided last October to establish a European support package for the peace process in Colombia whose overall amounts should be decided at the next donors’ meeting. This package of European support covers contributions both from EU Member States and the EU itself. All EU Member States indicated their willingness to provide financial contributions to this package and the majority of them have already put forward their pledges.
As the Swedish Presidency just announced, EUR 105 million of programmable aid will be made available by the Commission over the period 2000-2006. These funds will be dedicated to modernising administration, strengthening democracy and the rule of law, respect for human rights, protecting the environment and developing alternative crops. Emphasis will also be put on tackling a series of structural problems in the country and, in particular, political, social and economic reforms.
The Commission will also continue to provide humanitarian aid to assist the all too many displaced people in Colombia. This non-programmable aid has amounted to EUR 24 million since 1997. This year it is envisaged that about EUR 10 million will be made available for these kinds of interventions.
These areas of cooperation are also priority areas for the government. The EU intends to make its contribution effective as soon as possible. For this reason a mission including experts supplied by the Commission and the Member States is at this moment in Colombia in order to identify a project in an area called the Magdalena Medio, for which the Commission could earmark around EUR 20 million. In this region, violence is at its highest level and the EU initiative will target the promotion of dialogue between the parties in conflict. This will constitute effective implementation of the concept of a peace laboratory. The conclusions of these experts’ mission should be available by the end of February.
Apart from our financial commitment, Europe is also increasing its political role in the conflict. I shall mention the presence of several Member States in the Group of Friends which secured the meeting area with the National Liberation Army agreed on 26 January as well as the meeting promoted by the presidency with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in Paris on 15 December.
One last word about the risk of an extension of the Colombian conflict to neighbouring countries. Many have raised their concerns, notably Ecuador and Brazil. There has been, indeed, an increased flow of refugees crossing the border in the affected areas. For this reason the EU emphasised the need for a regional approach to the drug problem and more specifically to the Colombian conflict. This will be one of the major topics of the next EU-Andean Community meeting on drugs scheduled for the second quarter of this year. The objective will be to put more emphasis on an overall strategy in order to counter the phenomenon of the transfer of illicit crops from one country to another."@en1
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