Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-06-Speech-4-149"
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"en.20010906.7.4-149"2
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".
As the Members who have just spoken have pointed out, Zimbabwe is clearly in the grip of a serious crisis, which could lead to economic collapse and political conflict in extreme social conditions, bordering on a humanitarian emergency. Our analysis is the same as that which most of you have made: the sole objective of the Zimbabwean government is to stay in power, even if that means ending up destroying a country that not long ago was considered to be one of the soundest economies and democracies in Africa. The Zimbabwean government, which could have reasonably avoided this crisis, is therefore clearly responsible for this dramatic descent into hell.
The European Union’s political objective, as many of you have pointed out, is that presidential elections should be held. The Union’s main objective is presidential elections in 2002, in the best possible conditions to enable change, as we say in conventional language. The Union’s position, if that is the objective, should therefore be to seek a balance between, on the one hand, indicating our disagreement with the current development of the situation and, on the other hand, preventing it from serving as a pretext for declaring martial law, which would have the effect of delaying the elections that we want to take place. Therefore, observing the presidential elections in 2002 is, in our view, the absolute priority for the Union.
With regard to what was said in your speeches on the implementation of Article 8, that is political dialogue (Article 8 of Cotonou), we approve the pursuit of political dialogue, while stressing, like you, that no substantial progress has been made in this dialogue in recent months. A small hope remains, which is the forthcoming visit by the presidency to the countries involved in the Congolese crisis, an event that could perhaps lead to this dialogue being revived.
As far as the following stage is concerned, which is the implementation of Article 96 of Cotonou, which we call consultation and adoption of appropriate measures, again in conventional language, the Council will look at this issue at the beginning of October with, of course, our participation, and we will decide then whether or not we will take this step. With regard to the impact of this situation on development cooperation, we hope to be able to maintain the programmes that the Community funds in Zimbabwe, particularly in the health and education sectors, given the humanitarian and social nature of these programmes, in order not to penalise the population, which is already being heavily affected by the economic crisis. All this is taking place, as you have all said, in an extremely worrying economic and social context. In Zimbabwe this year we see that a cereal shortage has already occurred and that should be manageable if it was only a question of the cereal shortage and its consequences for the population. However, the serious instability prevailing in the country, the economic crisis and the societal conflicts that are taking place there are an important factor in a situation of food insecurity that we think, in these conditions, is in danger of becoming worse. It is therefore the interaction between the food situation, the agricultural shortages, in this case of cereals, the economic context and the political context, which contains the germs of a crisis that is probably even more serious than that which we are currently experiencing, and which we should do everything we can to avoid."@en1
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