Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-10-Speech-2-382"
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"en.20050510.30.2-382"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am frankly unhappy about beginning my speech, as we would have preferred to have Commissioner Michel answer, because he is an attentive observer who has a thorough understanding of the situation. I am not detracting in any way from the presence of Commissioner Fischer Boel, however.
The last time that Parliament addressed this issue was last September, at the time of the visit by the delegation headed by Mrs Morgantini. Much has happened in Sudan since then, however: above all, there has been a successful conclusion to the negotiations which led to the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement on 25 January, putting an end to 21 years of civil war between the north and the south of the country, even though the set of protocols included in the agreement is very demanding and requires good will on both sides.
At the same time, international attention has mounted over the ongoing tragedy in Darfur. It is a complex tragedy with many implications, and one that is difficult to summarise in a few minutes. Apart from the considerable attention it has received from the international community, it has also seen a remarkable humanitarian effort, particularly from the European Union, and recently also some significant pronouncements from the United Nations Security Council.
What in our opinion lies at the heart of the problem, and therefore needs to be examined by this House, is understanding whether the positive agreement between the north and the south of the country, between Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, can be a good omen and thus have a positive influence on the Darfur conflict, or whether in fact the international community is running the risk that the unresolved problem in Darfur may instead destabilise the north-south peace agreement. The two issues are thus separate but closely connected, because they are occurring in the same country.
The European Union is deeply committed because, on the one hand, it has contributed about EUR 400 million in humanitarian aid and, on the other, it is directly paying part of the costs of the AMIS mission, which is aimed at somehow maintaining relative stability in Darfur. In addition, there have been strong calls for the mission’s mandate to be considerably expanded and its strength greatly increased. It is worth remembering that Darfur covers a vast area about the size of France: it is particularly difficult to imagine that a military mission can carry out the important tasks assigned to it with a little under 3 000 men until recently, and now with 7 000 to 8 000 men.
Even so, we are aware that the situation in Darfur remains complex; there is not the violence of a year and a half ago, but abuses are still happening. If we cannot stop the violence, we cannot return the displaced people and refugees to their villages. Paradoxically, though, we are achieving the effect that the humanitarian machinery is working, the camps are working, but they are attracting new refugees, even from Chad, because they are oases of relative peace in a country which in contrast remains highly unstable and very violent.
With this oral question, which will also be followed up during this part session by a compromise resolution by the main political groups, we want to ask the Commission how much humanitarian aid there is and what it intends to do with it over the course of this year, and what schedule of commitments the Commission intends to promote for Darfur and for Sudan in general. We should also like to know whether we can work in conjunction with the Organisation for African Unity to set up a no-fly zone in Darfur, which will be the only way to stop the violence to any serious and credible degree.
Even though there was no room for my next point in the compromise resolution, I also want to ask whether the Commission considers it worthwhile to try to raise Europe’s level of political involvement by appointing a special representative for Darfur and Sudan – as we did for the Great Lakes and for Kosovo. Essentially, if the European Union is investing such great political and material resources to solve the problems in that area – it is the largest donor – it seems fair to ask whether it now intends to raise its presence politically."@en1
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