Mr President, I think it is important that we discuss a matter today which has to be settled quickly, i.e. how we formally give shape to the reconstruction programme for Kosovo. The European Union has a major role to play where this reconstruction is concerned, and we believe that is as it should be. However, we do not want the same mistakes to be made as were made in the past with large programmes such as those in Bosnia and in other places. That is why we want there to be more supervision, and this Parliament has a role to play here too. OLAF must be able to carry out its checks, and that will help us to implement the programme rapidly and effectively, for we are already receiving reports of delays that have occurred in the delivery of the things which are needed to quickly build Kosovo up. Furthermore, and this is also in Mrs Pack’s report, the direct involvement of the EU Member States will have to be kept to a minimum. Hence our proposal that we should not set up another of the famous management committees but, rather, that we should work together with an advisory committee. I consider that to be one of this Parliament’s important demands. We have often found in the past that things went wrong because the Member States interfered too much with programmes or wanted to carry out too many parts of the programmes themselves. The implementation of a programme must, as far as possible, be managed on-site, in this case from Pristina. That is the operational centre. It is the people there that must do the real work, and I mean particularly the Kosovars themselves. For another lesson we can learn from Bosnia is that too much is done by the international community and too little by the people themselves, which leads me to think sometimes that those countries are being run from outside rather from within. At the end of the day, they are, after all, going to have to do it themselves. Kosovo comes under the Stability Pact, which has to do with the proposal to establish the headquarters of the Stability Pact in Thessaloniki. I am completely in agreement with Mrs Pack’s proposal as far as that is concerned. It makes sense to administer that from within the region too. One of the amendments states that the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe should also have the opportunity to participate in the reconstruction projects. That too is a good thing. I think there is a great deal of expertise and experience available in the region which we can make use of. However, my group would make one qualification at this point. We assume that when we talk of South European countries and their involvement in the projects for reconstruction, we are not talking about the governments and authorities of Serbia and Croatia. We believe it is still too early to make overtures to these two countries. We are aware of the situation in Serbia, the problems surrounding Tudjman, the refugee situation in Krajina and the relationship between Tudjman and the government of Croatia and the Hague Tribunal. That is why we have certain reservations where the direct involvement of these countries’ authorities is concerned. IN THE CHAIR: MR COLOM I NAVALVice-President

Political group: PSE