WRITTEN QUESTION E-3549/01 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Common Foreign and Security Policy and southern Serbia.
Date: 2002-01-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: ECHO, EU aid, European Agency for Reconstruction, Serbia, common foreign and security policy, ethnic cleansing, ethnic discrimination

14.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 277 E/9

(2002/C 277 E/007)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3549/01

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(7 January 2002)

Subject: Common Foreign and Security Policy and southern Serbia

At the end of 2000, there was a big increase in tension between Albanians and Serbs in and around the
towns of Bujanovac, Medveda and Preševo, resulting in ethnic cleansing and mass refugee movements.
Thanks to the efforts of the international community,
it was possible to prevent the conflict from
escalating by means of a negotiated agreement.

In connection with my latest working visit to Kosovo and Macedonia at the end of November I met a large
delegation of Albanians from southern Serbia who complained that the promised aid to reconstruction in
the region had failed to materialise.

Can the Commission answer the following:

1. How much humanitarian aid has been allocated to Serbia via ECHO in recent years?

2. How much of this aid was intended for the three Albanian towns Bujanovac, Medveda and Preševo?

3. Can the Commission provide an overview of how the NGOs which it helps to fund are represented in

the above towns and what work they have done?

4. What has the European Agency for Reconstruction done in the region?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(28 February 2002)

The total amount of Community humanitarian aid allocated to the entire Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(FRY) since 1991 amounts to € 428 685 000. For the early part of this period, allocations were not
specifically divided between the parts of the FRY so it is not possible to distinguish, the amount specifically
allocated for the Republic of Serbia. For 2001, however, the amount of assistance allocated to the Republic
of Serbia was € 47,8 million.

Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) actions in the Presevo Valley (Presevo, Bujanovac, Medvedja) form part of
a countrywide programme targeting refugees, internally displaced persons and other vulnerable individuals.
In this context, it is important to point out that Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo are not specifically
singled out for assistance. Eligibility, as for any other area, is based on an assessment of needs.

ECHO’s countrywide programme has a broad-based approach to providing assistance, using a network of
partner organisations. Basic needs are covered in the fields of: shelter, health, social and psychosocial
from Croatia and Bosnia-
assistance, heating,
Herzegovina.

repatriation and legal assistance for

refugees

food,

A detailed list of ECHO’s partners and of the projects implemented in 2001 in Presevo, Bujanovac and
Medvedja is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament’s Secretariat.

Large amounts of non-humanitarian EC assistance have also been provided to Southern Serbia, under the
CARDS programme,
implemented by the European Agency for Reconstruction. Some of this CARDS
assistance D as described in more detail in the accompanying annex D has been specifically in support of
political efforts. However, EC assistance to this particular region must also be seen in the wider context of
EC assistance to the entire Republic of Serbia and to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a whole. Since
the democratic changes in October 2000, € 1,18 billion of EC reconstruction, economic and technical
assistance has been given to the FRY as a whole.