Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-12-Speech-3-149"
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"en.20030312.4.3-149"2
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". – Mr President, I wish to begin by associating myself wholeheartedly with all that the Foreign Minister has just said about the murder of Prime Minister Djindjic. I should like to extend my sympathy and, I am sure, the sympathy of the House to his family and friends and to all democrats in Serbia. Clearly we must not allow this assassination to set back the remarkable progress which has been made by Serbia in rejoining the European family, not least thanks to the bravery of men and women like Mr Djindjic. In about one and a half hours I am supposed to be flying to Croatia. This means I shall miss the end of the next debate, which will be left in the capable hands of Commissioner Bolkestein. Tomorrow evening I had planned to fly to Belgrade. Obviously, if it is still convenient for the authorities, I would like to do that and to express the solidarity of Parliament, the Commission and the Union as a whole with the government and people of Serbia in what is an extremely worrying time for them.
Even if the European Union operation will only be of limited size, let me state clearly that I do not consider that this has ever been a useful criterion against which to evaluate its worth. It will be a visible sign of our commitment to safeguarding stability in this country.
Secondly, we do not need to have second thoughts. Our objectives are clear.
As rightly pointed out in the motion for a resolution, the planned European Union takeover of the NATO military mission will be a further demonstration of the European Union's commitment to peace and stability in the country and in the region. It is fully consistent with our policy to contribute to the long-term security of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Let me just remind the House of the comprehensive package of financial assistance given by the Community in the security sector, under the justice and home affairs heading. Between 2002 and 2004 EUR 31.2 million have been earmarked for this purpose. This encompasses two crucial elements in particular. The first is support for the country to manage its borders through a comprehensive integrated border management programme, which includes creating an effective border police corps. The process of improving border security and management has a strong component of regional cooperation, and so the European Union is currently working closely with NATO and the OSCE to support the efforts which the countries in the region have started to make themselves.
The second element is support for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in developing a comprehensive strategy for the reform of its police service, to make it a well-trained, multi-ethnic and community-based public service.
In the view of the Commission, the European Union operation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will contribute to consolidating a stable environment conducive to the implementation of reforms that will facilitate its future integration with the European Union.
In this perspective, I have no doubt that a limited and focused EU military intervention can only reinforce progress towards full civilian and democratic control of the reforms under way.
This morning, we spent some time dwelling on an area of foreign and security policy where – I shall be diplomatic – we have not made as much progress as we would have liked. However, we have to recognise that in some parts of the world – most notably in the Balkans – Europe has in the last few years got its act together. You only have to compare the humiliations and bloody mayhem of the early 1990s, when Europe was unable to deal with awful problems on its own doorstep, with our success in the last few years in shaping policy and in helping to lead the countries of the Balkans towards the European family. We know the journey is not an easy one and today's tragedy reminds us how much work there still is for us to do. As I have said in this House before, it would be a terrible mistake if we were to think that the problems in the Balkans, or in Afghanistan for that matter, were done and dusted. We still have to focus, concentrate and be generous with our time, assistance and experience in helping those countries down the road towards eventual membership of the European Union. Whatever the tragic setbacks, I am sure that they will attain that objective in the years ahead.
The first European Union military operation is, as the Foreign Minister has said, about to start operations in the Balkans. It is an historic step for the European Security and Defence Policy. After the Copenhagen decisions we are now moving towards a wide-ranging set of arrangements with NATO – described by the Foreign Minister – which will enable our strategic partnership with them to go hand in hand with the entry into operation of the ESDP.
The decision taken by the Council in January to embark on a joint action opened a new chapter in the history of our integration, and it is not surprising that this chapter will have its first lines written in the Balkans. This historic dimension justifies fully the debate we are having today on the basis of the motion for a resolution by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy.
All of us remember the tragic events which took place in south-east Europe at the beginning of the nineties. Faced with a situation no one would have thought possible in our continent, the European Union had to develop new tools to strengthen its capacity to prevent and, if necessary, deal with any similar crises which could potentially endanger our security and which certainly offend our deepest values. It is therefore not by chance that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is to be the setting for this new step forward by the European Union.
The context of this operation is no longer the imperative to put an end to the civil conflict and to separate the fighters. It is rather the continuation of the build-up of a closer relationship between the Union and a country which is moving towards the European Union and which needs our support to consolidate the stability without which it will not be able to progress along this path.
I would like here to remind the House that only two years ago the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was on the edge of a civil conflict, but thankfully turned its back on war when an agreement was reached between the conflicting parties. During my first two years or so as a Commissioner I visited FYROM much more than any other place. In one period of just over a year I was in Macedonia almost ten times. A substantial and sustained commitment by the European Union – political as well as financial – supported the process. Thus we offered both a European perspective to the country through the Stabilisation and Association Process and through increased financial support.
A few figures can illustrate how substantial our financial assistance package has been. More than EUR 30 million was allocated in 2001 through the CARDS programme and the Rapid Reaction Mechanism, while nearly EUR 7 million was delivered in humanitarian assistance. These funds have been focused on de-mining, housing reconstruction, local infrastructure rehabilitation, confidence-building measures and institutional reforms required under the Framework Agreement. This effort was quickly followed up by the adoption of a multiannual programme which, under CARDS, earmarked EUR 130.5 million for democracy, the rule of law, justice and home affairs, and economic and social development.
These efforts have been paying off. The last few months have shown that political life is returning to normal, based on the implementation of the Framework Agreement and on the Stabilisation and Association Process. It is true that the security situation is still fragile. Last week’s incident, which tragically cost the lives of two Polish NATO officers, has been a further illustration that a continued international security presence is needed for the coming months in order to consolidate peace and security in the country and to underpin the implementation of the Lake Ohrid Agreement. This assessment is shared by the government, the President, the main political parties and international players.
Here I would like to address some of the concerns which may have emerged regarding the scope and the objective of the European Union military mission."@en1
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