Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-16-Speech-4-053"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.19990916.3.4-053"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, it is my pleasure to comment on the fact that in this short debate we have had three maiden speeches including that of Ms Schröder who, at 21 years of age, is the youngest Member of this Parliament. It is evidence of the fact that young people are extremely interested in politics. At 21 she is seven years younger than I was when I went to the House of Commons. I can only offer the hope that Ms Schröder matures better than I did and I am sure that she will.
Can I begin by expressing the Commission’s gratitude for the thorough report by the Committee on Development and Cooperation and for the support given throughout the consultation procedure for the Commission’s efforts to conclude the Tenth Convention between the Community and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East. In particular, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Morgantini for her work. The constructive involvement of Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, and Committee on Budgets also deserves thanks, and I will in a moment comment on the amendments proposed by the Committee on Budgets about which Mr Khanbhai spoke.
Since 1972 the Community has signed nine conventions with UNRWA governing the EC contribution to the organisation’s regular and food aid budgets. The tenth triennial convention covers the period 1999 to 2001 and provides for a contribution of EUR 120.82 million to UNRWA’s regular education and health programmes. It also allows for the annual negotiation of the contribution to the food aid budget. That EUR 120 million includes a 5% annual increase which reflects the operative principle of indexation that takes account of inflation and population growth. That arrangement has governed previous European Union contributions under the successive conventions and has been repeatedly praised by the United Nations Agency because it prevents erosion in the value of the Community’s contribution.
The Commission has made efforts to improve and to clarify the Convention being considered before the House today in order to make its application more transparent and also to take into account the relevant agreed provisions in the European Community-United Nations global arrangement. Other innovations in this convention including Article 4 on payments, Article 8 on visibility of the Community’s contribution, Article 9 on arbitration and Article 12 on entry into force, all aim at enhancing transparency and accountability.
I would like to advise the House that the Commission cannot accept the two amendments proposed by the Committee on Budgets for two reasons. Firstly, the purpose of the draft Council decision is not to regulate an interinstitutional information request. It is to approve the text of the EC-UNRWA Convention and to authorise the Commission to sign it on behalf of the Community. Secondly, the obligation to inform is inherent in the Commission’s responsibility to implement the Community budget. The annual report submitted by UNRWA will certainly be provided to Parliament as well as to the Council.
Progress on this issue is now urgent. UNRWA is facing a severe cash shortfall and we, as donors, have to do our utmost to accelerate the procedure to help out UNRWA and ultimately the Palestinian people. The House will be conscious that, in the context of the Middle East peace process and the Oslo peace accords, the refugee issue was specified for final status talks. Under those accords, the parties were supposed to have negotiated the final status issues by 4 May this year but sadly that has not happened. Let us hope, however, that the signature of the memorandum in Sharm el-Sheikh will reinvigorate the peace process and ensure that the outstanding issues on final status are tackled without great delay."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples