Confusion hampers EU aid to Kosovo

Date: 08/06/2000

By Simon Taylor

EFFORTS to restore Kosovo to normality are being undermined by cumbersome EU decision-making procedures and member states' failure to honour their commitments, according to a group of MEPs who have just returned from a fact-finding visit to the province.

The Union will spend €310 million this year in Kosovo, making it the single largest donor to the reconstruction process. But the MEPs claim the effectiveness of the EU's work on the ground is being impaired by "confusion between the different bodies involved in assistance to Kosovo" and "may be jeopardised" by the decision making-procedures adopted by the Council of Ministers.

German centre-right MEP Doris Pack, who headed the delegation, blamed last year's decision by member states to allow some decisions to be taken in Brussels while creating a new body, the European Reconstruction Agency (ERA) in Thessaloniki, to manage assistance. "We said one body should be enough," she told European Voice.

Wrangles between the ERA and Brussels-based committees have, for example, resulted in a range of important small-scale decisions such as on providing fertiliser in time for planting being delayed by up to a month.

The delegation has also strongly criticised member states for failing to provide the €12.5-15 million needed to set up an effective judicial system in Kosovo, saying this is jeopardising attempts to restore law and order in the province and end violent attacks on Serbs and Albanians.

In addition, they challenge member states' claims that Kosovo has been allocated all the money needed for reconstruction projects.

MEPs say the need for more funding strengthens the Parliament's case for securing fresh money from EU governments to provide aid for the Balkans.

Efforts to restore Kosovo to normality are being undermined by cumbersome EU decision-making procedures and Member States' failure to honour their commitments, according to a group of MEPs who have just returned from a fact-finding visit to the province.