Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-28-Speech-3-418"
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"en.20050928.29.3-418"2
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".
Mr President, thank you for those remarks, of which I have taken due note. We will take them into account in our future work. I will begin by responding to the questions from Members Mohácsi, de Groen-Kouwenhoven and Kallenbach.
There are three camps of internally displaced persons in northern Mitrovica for Roma Ashkali and Egyptian people. These sites suffer from major lead pollution as a result of the activities of the former Trepca mining complex and this poses a serious health risk to the inhabitants.
In July 2004, the World Health Organization released a report on elevated platelet levels in those communities and recommended a set of emergency measures, including the evacuation of the centres. An agreement was signed in April 2005 by UNMIK, UNHCR, OSCE and the President of the Mitrovica Municipal Assembly, creating a framework for the return of former residents of the Roma Mahala to their homes in southern Mitrovica. Unfortunately, however, this process has not yet started.
In the case of the Roma Mahala, we could not easily make funding available and so have communicated the request to all EU Member States through the Management Committee, asking them to consider making sufficient funds available. We will continue to raise this issue on the ground through our EU liaison office and the European Agency for Reconstruction, which works in that area.
I would also like to respond to Mr Posselt's question concerning minority rights in different countries, in the EU, in accession countries and in our partner countries. It is true, as Mr Posselt said, that there are many violations inside the European Union. The minimum rights of minorities are set out in the relevant documents of the Council of Europe and the Convention on Human Rights. Some countries inside the European Union stick close to the minimum standards, while others go beyond that and have a very high level of minority rights and protection. As the Commissioner responsible for enlargement, I am faced with difficult situations, because it is hard for us to go beyond what some EU Member States practice. Nevertheless, we must practice what we preach when we are dealing with our partners, whether they are accession countries or countries in the wider world.
That has to be taken into account, nevertheless. I agree that there is a case for working towards a more uniform definition of minority rights. In my view, human rights in general and the rights of minorities are at the heart of the European idea and of the European Union. Therefore, we should not see it as a static product but as a dynamic process which develops these rights at ever higher levels inside the European Union and throughout Europe.
Finally, concerning the questions raised by several Members on the future of Kosovo and its standards and status, there is clearly an urgent need for the economic and social development of Kosovo. The level of unemployment depends on which statistics you look at. However, it is at least 40% and often more than 50%, and the situation on the ground is extremely difficult. People have no hope at the moment. Therefore it is high time to move from stability and reconstruction towards defining the status and working for economic and social development and for the real needs of citizens. That is why it is time for the European Union to move from a policy of standards before status to a policy of standards
status so that we move forward in the status talks, ensuring that they can start soon and be conducted and concluded without unnecessary delay.
In that context, it is worth noting that the Council has reached an agreement at working group level on the negotiating guidelines for the stabilisation and association agreement with Serbia and Montenegro. That is important because it enables us to open the negotiations on the stabilisation and accession agreement around the fifth anniversary of the democratic transition in Belgrade and, moreover, because it will make Serbia and Montenegro's European prospects concrete and tangible and will also pave the way for a genuine dialogue on Kosovo and a resolution of the question of its status without undue and unnecessary delays."@en1
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