Brussels, 16/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - The situation in Kenya continues to worry the European Parliament, even though a member of the opposition being elected to the Kenyan parliament on 15 January as a “speaker”, provided an encouraging sign, especially for the Slovenian presidency. On behalf of the latter, Janez Lenarcic (Secretary of State for European Affairs) appealed for a political compromise that would lead to a long term solution. In reply to questions from MEPs, particularly from Anders Wijkman (ALDE, Denmark), Lenarcic explained that although the African mediation solution was gaining ground, the Union is prepared to work for mediation if this is supported by both parties.
This was confirmed by Commissioner Louis Michel, who had been working on this issue with South African Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize 1984) for a long time at the beginning of the crisis, and then with Kofi Annan (former UN Secretary General). Mr Michel also indicated that he had had no problem in obtaining contact with opposition leader, Raila Odinga, which was not the case with Mwai Kibaki, the president of Kenya. He said that this was “completely surprising” given that in the past this contact had not posed any problem. Michel paid homage to the work of the Parliamentary observation mission led by German Liberal, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff: even the most sceptical members had had to support his conclusions. Mr Michel said that finding a political solution to the situation in Kenya was imperative and if the contrary occurred, “the only option would be to review relations with Kenya…which were, nevertheless, excellent”. According to the Commissioner, “power sharing, possibly temporarily” appeared inevitable but that above all they needed to resolve the basic problems in a country that appeared to be an example of a good and average country in Africa.
Lambsforff, the head of the observation mission in Kenya first of all paid homage to the 150 observers, some of whom are already in Pakistan where the mission is due to go (he also paid homage to Commonwealth and US observers). The German Liberal said that his duty was one of neutrality and pointed out that he had never come out in favour of a victory for one or other of the parties. He explained that it was difficult to observe with certainty who had won.
Several parliamentarians said that budgetary aid should be suspended, particularly the British Labour Party member, Glenys Kinnock, who thought that they could replace it with aid for specific projects and insist on the cross compliance of the aid. Mr Michel said that affirming that budgetary aid is granted without conditions and without control is “obviously false”. Before the brutal suspension of aid to projects, they should firstly check whether this is feasible in the timeframe without making the people suffer any further. The Commissioner concluded that, “Obviously I do not agree on the pure and simple suspension of budgetary aid”. He explained that (in reply to Jan Mulder from the Dutch group of Liberals), “my life would be much more comfortable if I was directly accountable to Parliament for control of this budget”, therefore, if the European Development Fund (EDF) was part of the budget. Gabriele Zimmer (GUE/NGL, Germany), like Mr Michel, said that suspension of budgetary aid would increase the people's fears. Michel also defended the payment of €40.6 million to Kenya (second tranche of the support programme against poverty) on 28 December after having had a positive opinion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following the elections, but just before observing irregularities observed during the elections and the disorder that followed. He was at this moment technically too late to cancel this payment, a payment that had been criticised by some MEPs. In reply to Marie Hélène Aubert's (Greens/EFA, France) question about the possibility of holding new elections, the Commissioner explained that this would be a good thing if the parties agreed, if they did not, it could amplify already existing difficulties. (L.G.)