Brussels, 19/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Green/EFA group in the European Parliament will call for a national conference in Haiti to launch to process to get democratic institutions back on track, and is counting on the European Commission to back this idea, already issued by the Parliament on 11 March (see EUROPE 16 March, p.8).
The message was addressed on Thursday to Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Humanitarian and Development Aid by MEP Marie-Françoise Duthu, following a conference on the Haiti situation and related EU policy organised by the Europe-Haiti Co-ordination group (joining together NGOs from eight European countries) at the Parliament, and sponsored by the Greens/EFA.
In a communication to the Commissioner, the MEP underlines that: 1) for Haitian society, security is the number one priority and that the international community should therefore bolster the Haitian national police and fix the disarming of all the militia as an objective; 2) it is also very important to oversee the process to get the democratic institutions back on track and a national conference gathering all parties concerned would be a positive contribution; 3) ongoing commitment from the international community in general, and from the EU in particular, is necessary both to consolidate the State and support the self-organisation of civil society, in particular in rural areas.