Brussels, 07/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously adopted the report by Ursula Stenzel (EPP-ED, Austria) on the European Reconstruction Agency, which manages EU aid to South East Europe. MEPs criticised the European Commission for not having provided them with the information promised concerning territorial extension of the Reconstruction Agency's powers, as well as regarding the future EU strategy towards South East Europe and its implications for the Agency. While acknowledging the effectiveness of the work carried out and the specific circumstances in which the Agency had to work, MEPs consider there is still room for improvement. They insist on the need to amend the regulations of the Agency bearing in mind the slide in its activities and the extension of its territorial powers, as well as ensuring its working is autonomous and clarifying its competences compared to those of EU delegations on the ground, and also improving its annual reports.
At the end of 2001, the Commission had proposed extending the territorial competences of the Reconstruction Agency to the whole of Yugoslavia and to Macedonia. The Parliament had agreed on condition that External Affairs Commissioner Christ Patten make a report on the Agency's activities and present the Commission's strategy for South East Europe by March 2002 at the latest. On May 1 this year, the Parliament had still not received anything and the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Elmar Brok (CDU, Germany) formally called on the Commission for "the person in charge of the policy to give clarifications on this point". Sources familiar with the dossier within the Commission pointed out that an oral report had been given on several occasions at the parliamentary committee, but that, "apparently, it is not enough". "A report on the strategy of the Union for south East Europe and on the Agency will be made before the end of the year", say the same sources. Concerning the autonomy of the Agency, this source specifies that it is "more independent than a Commission bureau" but that "we have close relations". In the meantime, the Parliament deferred the vote on the plenary resolution from the July session to that in the first week of September after having discussed with the Commissioner in charge.
In its report, the parliamentary committee also recommends: 1) improving transparency of the Agency's transfers and financial practices mainly for projects in the energy sector and to this end to appoint an internal auditor; 2) to develop the role of the Agency in execution of credits allocated to CARDS (programme for assistance to the Balkans for the period 2000-2006), as its knowledge on the ground will allow it to verify whether the beneficiaries respect the financial and political conditions to which aid is subject; 3) to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the Agency, the Commission sservices and the international organisations for better coordinating aid and better using financial resources (according to the parliamentary committee, the funds allocated to the energy sector in Kosovo have not had the effects desired); 4) to work in cooperation with UNMIK and the government of Kosovo and to promote political and economic cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia and Montenegro in order to develop a strategy for a regional energy market.