The reinforcement of the contribution of the European Union.
The
European Union has made a comprehensive response to the APL challenges through
the Community, CFSP and the Parliament and policies in the field of development
co-operation, rehabilitation and reconstruction, humanitarian assistance, and
research. The Council of Ministers has been actively engaged on the APL issue
since 1995 through joint actions and resolutions; diplomatic demarches and
dialogue with third countries; activity in international fora such as the United
Nations; active participation in the Ottawa process; and through practical
action.
All fifteen member states of the Union attended the Ottawa Conference from
2-4 December 1997, and 14 of them signed the Convention. The European Union
supported mine action also through various institutions, in particular the UN
Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Clearance (UNVTF) and the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). As regards CFSP funds, the
Council has taken decisions since 1995 to contribute a total of some 21.6 MECU
reserved for CFSP action to a range of mine actions carried out by leading
international organisations. The European Union is thus the largest single
contributor to both the United Nations and the ICRC for funds related to Mine
actions.
Since 1995, the European Parliament has been strongly committed to the APL
issue and has acted as a consistent advocate of the total ban through successive
resolutions and questions. Most recently, the European Parliament resolution on
APL of 18 December 1997, in addition to encouraging wider adherence to the
Convention and its early ratification, also called for more effective
co-ordination of international efforts in mine clearance and in the
rehabilitation of victims.
The greater part of the European Union contribution comes from Community
resources which are controlled and managed by the European Commission. Over the
past eight years, European Community support for mine action has exceeded EUR
180 million. On 14 March 2000, the European Commission approved a Communication
to the European Parliament and the Council as well as a draft Regulation on an
ACTION AGAINST ANTI PERSONNEL LANDMINES: REINFORCING THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION Reasons behind the decision to revamp the Anti-Landmines strategy
and process are multi-fold; they concern the need to take stock of the
experiences and lessons learned until now on the field and indirectly, the need
to approach the problem with an overall strategy and under all the facettes
required by the criteria for Humanitarian and Civil Demining, the need to
introduce explicit links between de-mining and safety and security objectives,
to reinforce Community's mine actions, to ensure complementarity and consistency
between Community policies and those of Member States, to reinforce overall
efficiency as required by the obligations under Ottawa Convention and thus to
remove the scourge of landmines within the next 10 to 15 years at the latest. A
reinforced budgetary line will progressively lead to a level of quantity and
quality of commitments such as to keep up with and exceed Community's past
records.
The European Union has intervened in all corners of the world, it has
supported action by national authorities, international organisations, and not
least NGOs. It has contributed to de-mining and mine destruction as well as to
victim assistance and research into new de-mining technology. But until now, we
have not had a coherent overall approach to our mine action.
To take full advantage of the diversity of our instruments and funding
mechanisms, we must make sure that we have a framework in which we can formulate
the necessary horizontal guidelines and priorities in order to ensure
effectiveness and consistency in what we do. The funding of mine action from the
geographic programmes and their budget lines will continue. Mine clearance and
other forms of mine action are often a preliminary step to any sensible
development programme.
Therefore they should form part of national or regional reconstruction and
rehabilitation plans. The new regulation and the special budget line will
support and complement the geographic line by providing the overall policy
framework and functioning as a general reserve and a source for funding for
international programmes. The re-sources available for European Community mine
actions should remain at least at the same level in real terms as we have
achieved over the last few years, that is about EUR 30 million a year. European
member states contributions will add to this amount as much thus bringing the
total average to at least 60 m € per year.
Regular programmes for mine clearance and destruction under our new policy
should principally benefit countries which have subscribed to the Ottawa
Convention. But we must also be ready to provide exceptional assistance to mine
victims at their homes or when they have been displaced, even when they have the
misfortune to find themselves in a non-signatory country. The entry into force
of the Ottawa Convention a year ago provided us with a forceful new instrument
and a set of ambitious targets for the years to come. We have signed up to the
objective of eliminating all landmines world-wide in ten to fifteen years. That
will require determination, consistency and perseverance. With the funding and
co-ordinating mechanism under the new regulation and communication, we are well
placed to take on that challenge.
European Community Mine Actions 1999
COUNTRY
COMM. SERVICE
AGENCY
PERIOD
AMOUNT €)
BUDGET LINE
ESSENCE OF THE PROJECT
Cambodia
ECHO
Halo Trust
20-06-99 31-03-00
700,000
KHM/210
Mine clearance
Kosovo
ECHO
INTERSOS
17-01-00 31-03-00
360,000
TPS/214
Urgent humanitarian de-mining in Kosovo
Kosovo
ECHO
HANDICAP– FRA/LYON
9-12-99
31-01-00
240,000
TPS/214
Emergency EOD team deployment to Kosovo
Kosovo
ECHO
MAG-UK
26-11-99 31-03-00
350,000
TPS/214
Emergency humanitarian demining in Kosovo
Kosovo
ECHO
HANDICAP –
FRA/LYON
23-11-99 30-07-00
460,000
TPS/214
Kosovo mine action programme, Djakova district
Kosovo
DG RELEX
3,000,000
OBNOVA
Institution Building Support to MACC
BiH
DG RELEX
4,000,000
OBNOVA
De-mining programme
Kosovo
DG RELEX
1,000,000
OBNOVA
Emergency support to MACC
Afghanistan
DG RELEX
UNOCHA
3,800,000
AFG (B7-3020)
Mine Action
Angola
INTERSOS
300,120
Orthopaedic rehabilitation centre and social reinsertion of victims
(Italian co-financing)
Angola
INTERSOS
700,000
Training of a demining brigade and demining activities (Italian
co-financing)
Angola
CARE
646,308
B7-6610
CAMRI II
Angola
Halo Trust
1,200,000
B7-6610
Mine clearance on the planalto
Mozambique
Min For Foreign Affairs of MOZ
71,775
B7-6610
Contribution to the Maputo Conference on MAP
Croatia
424,197
CFSP
Council decisions 1998/627/PESC and 1998/628/PESC
R&D
JRC
1,650,000
ESPRIT
Development of vehicle-based multisensor detection prototype
JRC
2,874,500
ESPRIT
Development of hand-held multisensor detection prototype
JRC
1,027,000
ESPRIT
Development of light weight radar system
JRC
1,925,000
ESPRIT
Prototyping and field validation of hand-held multisensor detection
system
JRC
1,073,595
ESPRIT
Development of neutron-based prototype to verify presence of buried
mines