Brussels, 22/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - At its meeting in Brussels on 26 February, chaired by Anna Lindh, the General Affairs Council will again discuss the situation in Kosovo, especially, this time, in the light of the very serious tensions in Southern Serbia (see below, as well as EUROPE of 19/20 February, p.5 for the EU's declaration following the latest attacks by Albanian extremists, and 17 February, p.3, for the EU's declaration backing the Covic Plan for Presevo) and the Skopje Summit in which Javier Solana and Chris Patten are participating (see above). The UN Representative for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, and the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, Bobo Hombach, will be taking part in Monday's work.
The Council will then turn to the prospects for pacification in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the recent coup d'Etat and the arrival in power of President Joseph Kabila (who stopped-off in Brussels after his trip to Washington) and, having heard a report by the Swedish Presidency on the EU Troika visit this week to the Southern Caucasus (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4), the Council should be able to approve, depending on an ultimate compromise, the European Commission's "everything but arms" initiative (regarding this initiative aimed at opening up EU markets to all products, except weapons, from the 48 poorest countries of the world, see EUROPE of 17/18 January, p.9, and 8 February, p.8).
Over lunch, the foreign ministers and the Commission will again discuss the situation in the Middle East and turn to relations between the European Union and the United States, following the arrival of the Bush Administration in Washington (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4 for the invitation to President Bush to come to Gothenburg on the occasion of the European Council of 15 and 16 June).
Also over lunch, they will discuss how to launch the dialogue with the public on Europe's future, preparations for which were handed in the Nice Declaration to the Swedish and Belgian presidencies, including that of the role of the European Parliament and national parliaments in this broad debate.
In addition, the United Kingdom has again asked for the situation in Zimbabwe to be discussed (relations between London and Harare are increasingly tense, especially following the expulsion of a BBC reporter), and Spain for the situation in El Salvador to be raised, where two deadly earthquakes have recently struck
Council should adopt conclusions recognising need to render
EU Common Strategies more effective
On Monday, the Council should adopt conclusions on Common Strategies of the European Union, following the presentation by the High Representative/Secretary General of the Council Javier Solana of a very critical analysis of these strategies, at the General Affairs of 22 January (see EUROPE of 22/23 January, pages 9 and 10, and EUROPE/Documents No 2228 annexed to EUROPE of 31 January).
In its conclusions the Council should recognise that it is necessary to improve the implementation of the Common strategies and to further develop their potential by giving indications over the ways in which to achieve them. In particular, it will insist over the need for the Common Strategies: - to clearly bring an added value to the Union's external action, and notably an improved coherence and coordination of the Union's external policies; - concentrating more on clearly identified issues (the Council will also have to underline the role to be played by the High Representative/Secretary General and the European Commission); - aim to ensure a coherent use of all the capabilities and resources available to the Union and its Member States.
Moreover, in the future it will require regularly assessing the progress achieved compared to the targets set by the Common Strategies and to carry out adjustments, if necessary. The Council will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Common Strategies (notably during an annual assessment, in January), with the active contribution of the High Representative/Secretary General and the European Commission.
Presevo valley: Mr Solana underlines role that international community can play to
contribute towards security and stability
The EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Commissioner Chris Patten received, in view of next Monday's Council, a letter from the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, which discusses the situation in the Presevo valley and informs them of the meetings held last week on this issue with the Serb Deputy Prime Minister Nebjisa Covic and the Yugoslav Minister for Foreign Affairs Goran Svilanovic. In his letter, Mr Solana indicates that he has agreed to remain in close contact with Mr Covic and Mr Svilanovic over all the aspects related to the Presevo valley, and that he had received the assurance that, in the case of a deterioration in the situation, Belgrade would not change its stance without warning the international community (I intend to further insist on this point when I meet President Kostunica on 23 February in Skopje, adds Mr Solana).
The High Representative asserts that the Covic plan for the Presevo valley bear witness to the genuine desire of the new leaders in Belgrade to achieve a peaceful solution and that, though they are not perfect, it constitutes a "good basis" for the efforts deployed. However, the Belgrade authorities will not unite their efforts without a rapid and substantial aid from the international community, he underlines, while believing, in particular, that the Council, on 26 February, should bring political support to the "constructive attitude" of Belgrade, and clearly indicated that any solution will have to respect the territorial integrity of the FRY. As for the leaders of the Kosovo Albanians, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, the EU should, according to Mr Solana, indicate to them that the support it may give them in the future will be reliant on their commitment to put an end to the violence, while at the same time assuring them that it shares their "reasonable" concerns for the situation in Southern Serbia. In this context, Mr Solana insists in particular over the importance of the economic dimension of the Covic plan which, given that the needs of this poor regions are "enormous", should make the project as a whole more attractive to the Albanian population. Mr Solana recalls that Commissioner Chris Patten announced a additional emergency programme of EUR 900,000 (and that the Commission was studying what long-term contribution to make, thanks to the EUR 240 million programme foreseen for Serbia over the course of this year), asserts that the EU's efforts must be complemented by "significant bilateral actions", while noting that certain Member States are already studying this possibility.
As for the problems of security, Mr Solana confirmed, in his letter, his intention to strengthen on the ground the EUMM team, the European Union observers who are already in the Balkans (which is now a done thing: the EU now has a team of fifteen people on Southern Serbia) and noted that one of the core elements of the Covic plan is the establishment of local multi-ethnic police forces, which should play a crucial role, following the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and the special police forces. Mr Solana signals with regard to this that Mr Covic called on the EU to rapidly examine, with the Serbs, what contribution the international community could make to the recruitment and training of such forces, and indicated that one of the models which could be used an model is the Kosovo Police College.