WRITTEN QUESTION E-3432/01

by Ioannis Marínos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(21 December 2001)

Subject: Relations between the EU and Ethiopia

According to a statement by the Ethiopian Government, a four-member delegation of the Ethiopian Sugar Industry Support Centre visited Brussels from 23 to 26 November 2001 to establish contacts with officials of the Commission's Directorates-General for Agriculture and Trade.

The purpose of the Ethiopian delegation is to put on an official footing the participation of Ethiopia alongside eight other less developed countries in the Community initiative Everything But Arms: these countries will then be able to sell their sugar production to the Union over the next nine years at a guaranteed preferential price. The Ethiopian authorities have calculated that by June 2002 Ethiopia will have earned US$ 7,5 million from the EU, while if it tried to sell its produce on the free market the revenue would amount to a mere US$ 2 million.

The EU is of course the world's largest sugar producer, and Member States, such as Greece, which produce significant quantities of very high grade sugar will feel the repercussions of this Community initiative. The EU is steadfastly committed and rightly so to supporting the less developed countries and guaranteeing them preferential treatment for their products. However, some of these countries including Ethiopia stubbornly refuse to undo the damaging legacy of the totalitarian regimes previously imposed on them. Ethiopia has been particularly inflexible about reversing the consequences of the Communist regime of Mengistu and notably to the mass confiscation the property of many Community nationals (Italians, French, Greeks, etc.) who lived in the country. Even though no initiative has yet been taken to return this property to its rightful owners, the EU now seems prepared to help this country once more.

Have the Commission officials concerned raised the issue of returning property confiscated from Community nationals with their Ethiopian counterparts? Will the Commission make the granting of aid to Ethiopia conditional upon the taking of specific steps to reverse even partially the confiscation of the property of Community citizens which is still in force despite the fact that the Communist regime is supposed to have been overthrown?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(25 January 2002)

The Commission has not, in the recent past, raised with the Ethiopian authorities the question of the restitution of appropriated property owned by Union citizens, nor has the granting of Community aid been made conditional on such restitution. According to existing practices; this is an issue to be addressed on a bilateral level, between states or between the Ethiopian courts and the Union citizens concerned.

The Community is, however, increasingly concerned by governance issues in general and the Cotonou Agreement provides for a number of instruments through which standards of governance can be influenced.

In the case of Ethiopia, the Commission is conscious of continued shortcomings in the judicial system, and in other areas of governance, and increasing proportions of Community development aid are being allocated to capacity building for governance, including specifically legal and judicial reform and the strengthening of the judiciary.