Brussels, 10/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - A solution to the conflict between the European Commission and the liaison committee for European development NGOs (CLONG) over the conclusions of a financial audit, seems to be emerging. If the College approves, this Wednesday, the draft agreement stemming from the last minute talks between the CLONG and the Directorate General for Development in the Commission, CLONG could continue its activities, in a form that remains to be defined, but which, surely, will guarantee in the future, its complete independence from the Commission. By announcing the news to the press, Joachim Lindau, President of CLONG, added that the Special General Assembly of the 15 national platform forming CLONG, gathered this Monday and Tuesday in Brussels (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7) had, firstly voted for the liquidation of the association, then, decided on the continuation of activities. However, the Assembly adds that in the absence of an agreement or an immediate end to the legal proceedings (by the end of this month) allowing for the continuation of activities, it would approve the decision by the liaison committee to call for the dissolution and the nomination of a receiver by the Court of First Instance in Brussels.
The only benefit from the present conflict is to have allowed to clarify the role of the liaison committee or of the structure that will replace it. It has no future as a testing ground for the Commission. The European NGO representation must clearly position itself as a lobbying instrument, as wanted by its members, and a testing ground, to the great shame of some of them. Refusing to reveal the content of the draft agreement ruling on the final amount to be recovered by the Commission, he added: if the Commission approves, the CLONG will survive, but it will nevertheless exit weakened, as the initial suspicions of fraud risk staining the reputation, even if the Commission finally puts them to rest. According to Mr Lindau, the present situation, which breaks with twenty five years of confident cooperation between the Commission and CLONG, translates a change of paradigm: the concern for coherence held by the Commission in its external relations has had as result that "development policy is no longer an independent sphere, but a policy used as a foreign policy instrument. The role and the place of NGOs is changed: from a force for proposal, it would be called upon to become a force for implementation.