Brussels, 10/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission approved its proposal to the Council concerning EU assistance to the countries of the Western Balkans in the aim of simplifying, improving and accelerating EU action in this region. Presenting this project to the press, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten explained and justified the Commission's budgetary proposals presented last week.
The countries targeted are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (composed of Serbia and Montenegro). The Commission essentially proposes to:
- unify in a single legal base and in a single programme the initiatives which are currently covered by the Phare and Obnova programmes;
- clarify and specify the aims of Community action. Assistance will aim at: a) reconstruction and stabilisation of the region; b) support to democracy, the rule of law, human rights and minority rights; c) economic development and reforms geared to the market economy;
- promote close regional cooperation between beneficiary countries.
The programming of assistance will be carried out in close collaboration with the authorities of the countries concerned, which should undertake to follow institutional, administrative and economic reforms. One political condition is set out: respect of democratic principles, fundamental freedoms, human rights and minority rights represent a prior condition for benefiting from assistance. Internal EU procedures will be accelerated (the management committee which assists the Commission will only give its stance on financing decisions exceeding EUR 10 million). The regulation of the European Agency for Reconstruction will be adjusted to the new regulation on assistance.
Answering journalists questions, Mr. Patten, strongly defended the Commission's budgetary proposals and the financial prospects that its' basis, founded on a financial effort by the EU totalling 5.5 billion over seven years. The Commission based itself on: a) the guideline according to which the EU would take over half the global effort of the international community; b) the studies and calculations by the World Bank on the cost of reconstruction. "We have worked on the basis of the facts, the real needs and our evaluation is realistic. Taking into account the promises and undertakings, what we are proposing represents the minimum." Mr. Patten also recalled that the budgetary authority is made up of two instances, the Parliament and Council.
He added that regardless nothing is certain for the future: the figure cited include EUR 2.3 billion for Serbia, which will be released only if the Milosevic regime falls. Nevertheless, the Commission felt is necessary to register the support to Serbia in its plan, so as to avoid having to start from scratch when the event occurs: it will be necessary to start the calculations over, start a fresh the procedures, return before the budgetary authorities… Thus, on the other hand, everything is ready: but the credit for Serbia will be unusable as long as Milosevic remains in place. Therefore, it is unnecessary to do too may calculations for the future, the essential is to concentrate on the credits for next year, which the Commission has done for its preliminary draft budget 2001 (see following pages).
As for the reduction of credits for other regions (Mediterranean, Central America, etc.) Mr. Patten underlined that the payments will nevertheless be increased. The reality is that at the present time the credits promised in these regions are only spent in a very partial manner: 35% to 40% for the Mediterranean countries and for Central America it will require 7 to 8 years to spend the credits promised. It is useless to free money if it is not spent, as it is useless to make promises if they are not back with money to hold them.