WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1184/98 by Graham MATHER to the Commission. Human rights in the Dominican Republic
Date: 1998-04-29
Institutions: European Parliament, MATHER
Subjects: Dominican Republic, Haiti, civics, human rights, migrant worker, plantation, sugar industry

11.12.98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 386/91

Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission

(28 May 1998)

The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that there were 511 submissions within the
framework of the particular Raphael action in which the (cid:145)European Art Centre(cid:146) presented its proposal and that
only 43 projects were selected mainly due to the very limited budgetary resources allocated to the Raphael
programme. This was very clearly stated in the reply of 18 February 1998 given to the unsuccessful applicants.
The selection of the projects was made on the basis of the recommendations of a group of independent experts as
well as with the approval of the Raphael committee, which consists of representatives of the national authorities
from all the Member States.

Furthermore, in a recent reply (25 March 1998) to a complaint by the applicant organisation the Commission
explained that despite the positive appreciation of the project in question by a group of independent experts, it
was not possible to support financially their proposal as well as many others due to the very limited available
resources.

As to the selected projects and the amounts allocated to each one of them, the relevant documentation is
forwarded directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat.

(98/C 386/120)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1184/98

by Graham Mather (PPE) to the Commission

(29 April 1998)

Subject: Human rights in the Dominican Republic

What action is the European Union taking to improve the human rights situation in the Dominican Republic? Will
this action benefit Haitian plantation workers?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission

(11 June 1998)

Historically speaking, relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti have been tense. The origin of it has
been the presence of Haitian workers in the sugar production of the Dominican Republic.

The Commission is attentive to this situation and has over the years encouraged a dialogue between the two
countries, which is slowly producing positive results. In fact, since 1995 one can notice an improvement in
relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to which the democratically elected presidents of the two
countries have largely contributed. President PrØval visited Santo Domingo in March 1996 and President
Fernandez Reyna is expected to visit Port-au-Prince in June 1998.

The Commission, with the support of the Member States, is financing through the budget line B-7020 (Human
rights and democratisation) a campaign of civic education which was beneficial during the legislative and
municipal elections of May 1998 in the Dominican Republic.

Under the responsibility of the Commission delegations in Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince, technical
meetings (headed by the national authorizing officers of the two countries) have taken place in the recent past
with the objective to design common actions and programmes jointly benefiting the two countries in the areas of
environment, transport and infrastructure (all of which will be financed by the European development fund). One
of the most important and sensitive projects which the Dominican government has proposed to be funded by the
Commission focuses precisely on the support to migrant workers (mainly Haitian labourers) in sugar production
areas ((cid:145)Bateyes(cid:146)) of the Dominican Republic.