Mr President, I would first of all like to congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Marset Campos, on the excellent report which he has presented to us. This report has inevitably been influenced by the tragic consequences of Hurricane Mitch. The European Parliament – and I believe we should remember this – reacted immediately by calling an extraordinary meeting on 4 November 1998 which was attended by the Commissioners then responsible. In its resolution of 19 November, the European Parliament expressed the terms in which the European Union would respond to the situation created by Hurricane Mitch. This response had to be formulated with the greatest diligence and speed through the approval of a strategic plan for the region within the shortest possible time limit. I remember the date: November 18-19 1998. We must say that this request by the European Parliament, at least with regard to diligence and speed, has not been attended to, and this is a cause for regret. The lack of human resources, while it may be an excuse from an administrative point of view, cannot and must not be a pretext for the establishment of political priorities, especially in the case of basic needs of countries which have suffered disasters on a massive scale. To transfer this responsibility to the budgetary authority is not correct. The Commission must at all times ensure the appropriate allocation of resources in accordance with the priorities agreed. Commissioner, this morning, in the debate on the common security and defence policy, I had the opportunity to tell your colleague, Mr Patten, that I have never had, do not have and will never have any hesitation in decisively supporting the Commission with a view to clarifying and broadening the scope of its competencies. On the contrary. However, as other Members have said during this debate and as I had the opportunity to say also to Mr Patten during the budgetary debate, it is difficult for me to understand why the Commission has no difficulty in managing the EUR 800 million which it proposes in the preliminary draft 2001 budget for the Balkans but that, nevertheless, it has difficulties managing EUR 250 million which have been set aside in the plan for reconstruction in Central America, which are not envisaged for one year, but for four years. In any event, Commissioner, the countries of Central America have not carried out a policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing. They have included, unlike other geographical areas in their agreements with the European Union, a democratic clause which provides an essential element on which the whole relationship is based. The countries of Central America have taken on very painful processes of structural adjustment which have meant great sacrifices for their societies. They have done their duties with regard to the multilateral institutions and have fully complied with what the European Union expected of them. Mr President, European civil society has already shown how sensitive it is to the tragedy suffered by the peoples of Central America. It is now time for our institutions, in the face of a disaster of this type, to be a match for our civil society and for the circumstances.

Political group: PPE-DE