Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-183"
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"en.20040914.11.2-183"2
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".
Mr President, I am grateful for the opportunity to address the crisis which has developed in Darfur and for the interest shown by Parliament and the Committee on Development in making this its first mission of this new parliamentary term.
In spite of the limited scale of this operation, results in the field have been positive. I firmly believe that only an African Union initiative will have the political weight and relevance to oblige the belligerents, and in particular the Government of Sudan, to comply with their commitments. This does not mean that others should not and cannot play a very important role. Partnership and ownership are not incompatible, especially when the partnership is carried out in a professional manner, reflecting the sound principle that visibility is fine but feasibility is better.
It is clear that some of the existing weakness of the organisation experienced by the African Union could, and should, be addressed by an enhanced partnership with the United Nations and with the EU as such, including our Member States. However, I appreciate, as the presidency has also today clearly stated, that the African Union has to be in the driving seat. They have to initiate and drive this mission.
In this respect the Commission is ready, in liaison with the Member States and if the AU so requests to envisage additional support through the peace facility to a well-planned extension of the AU mission in Darfur.
The most urgent objective is clearly to ensure maximum protection for the civilian population. The whole problem of whether or not to return, and what to return to, essentially depends on people's feeling of security in that situation.
We have to be ready to discus with the parties in appropriate fora a possible amendment of the current mandate of the AU mission, if the Government of Sudan is unwilling or unable to effectively protect the population of Darfur. This is a must.
It is also important to note that we are facing a real conflict. There is more to this than some disorganised violence. There is not only the problem concerning the Government of Sudan, there are rebel groups fighting for their agendas they do exist.
For that reason, all this has to be dealt with through a serious effort to mediate, putting pressure on all the parties.
It is also important to emphasise that a sustainable political solution for Darfur necessarily has to be articulated and worked out in parallel with and in relation to the global Naivasha process. A solution for Darfur alone will not solve the wider problem. In fact the problem in Darfur did not come out of the blue, it was a result of the problems in Sudan.
A measure of political agreement has been reached in Abuja and that is a good start, but we have to support all forces working to push this in the right direction and at the same time focus on the enormous task of improving the humanitarian situation in the field.
The mission has returned with a clear picture of a complex situation and has expressed indignation at the terrible events which continue to unfold in Darfur.
The Commission had been actively engaged in delivering humanitarian aid to the western part of Sudan before this crisis became what it has. Things are so terrible now that we have mobilised to date EUR 105 m. This has mostly been spent on basic humanitarian food aid, but we are also trying to support the political process. This amount corresponds to some 37% of what the EU as a whole has contributed. Normally, the Commission's share of support in these humanitarian crises is about 20% of what Member States give in total. I would add here that we see quite a spread when we compare what different Member States have contributed. I mention this because I find the qualitative value of what the EU as a whole is doing in a given situation is related not only to what the Commission is doing or the total amount of what we do, but also to the genuine character of commitment across Europe as a whole in support of our activity.
We are also directing money and effort to the situation in Chad, by providing shelter for an estimated 200 000 refuges from Darfur.
In mobilising aid we have been facing persistent administrative blockages from the Government of Sudan and major logistical problems resulting in substantial additional costs. More than 25% of the costs of this operation relates to the logistical problems.
The administrative problems are progressively being solved, in my view thanks to a large extent to the international community's pressure on the Sudanese Government. As to logistics, ECHO is opening a technical antenna in Darfur and another in Chad to improve coordination in the field. They will be operational by the end of this month and we are planning for an initial period of 12 months.
However, there is still a lot more to do. It is estimated that about 40% of the affected population still has no access to humanitarian aid and, in spite of improvement in some areas, violence, including systematic rape of women, is still being reported. I am aware that the mission has returned with accounts of terrible violence and great fear.
It is important for the international community to remain mobilised, as the humanitarian needs will continue for another year, even in the best-case scenario. As we have seen, the effects of these crises continue to be felt and we must organise ourselves to handle them better in future.
In parallel to humanitarian aid, the EU has been very active in the political sphere. We have mobilised for the first time the EDF-funded African Peace Facility, providing the bigger part of the budget of the mission of the African Union. This has allowed a rapid response from the African Union Peace and Security Council via a decision taken at its first official meeting and following the humanitarian ceasefire agreement in N'Djamena. It has sent some 150 observers and a 300 strong military protection force to monitor the ceasefire."@en1
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