Paris, 2 June, 2004 – The WEU Assembly has said the European Union (EU) should give high priority to a strong multidimensional effort for increasing prosperity, stability and security in the western Balkans.

The ten other recommendations of a report, prepared by John Wilkinson (UK/Federated Group) for the Political Committee and adopted unanimously on Wednesday, included a call for NATO to maintain a substantial visible presence in the region, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo; also for the EU to coordinate with the United Nations its support for the handover in November to Kosovo’s provisional elected government and for NATO to overhaul the Kosovo Protection corps. The EU should continue to stress the need for minorities to participate in government and show its political, diplomatic and (…) military support for the region’s integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures.

“There are few areas of policy where parliamentary support is more important than in the Balkans”, Mr Wilkinson commented. “The approach has to be multidimensional” and the Assembly should “focus with particular intensity on Kosovo. (…) Unless the Kosovo question is resolved to the satisfaction of its people and neighbours, there will always be a risk of a recrudescence of violence.”

His report, entitled “The European Union’s Stabilisation Missions in south-east Europe”, updated each country’s progress in introducing democracy, rule of law, human rights and minority rights, and in stamping out corruption, graft and crime and cooperating with the International War Crimes Tribunal. All these are conditions to the new nations’ future entry into the EU. Mr Wilkinson agreed with speakers that coexistence between different ethnic groups could not be imposed from the outside, but had to be built by the communities themselves. This was “painstaking and at times heartbreaking,” said Lord Judd (UK/Socialist Group). “The task that really matters is to win hearts and minds. (…) We have to show the example of the values we are talking about”, and ensure that there is enough cash to finance the cost of rule of law.

Teddy Taylor (UK/Federated Group) described as hypocritical the report’s call for Albania to crack down on corruption, fraud and graft when the European Union had not had its accounts audited for eight years. “If the EU were a public company, its directors would be in prison. (…) We will not progress on the basis of hypocrisy and trying to delude ourselves”.

Mr Wilkinson said that an ex-Yugoslav pattern should not be imposed again, since “we don’t want a police state”, also that “we mustn’t be too prescriptive in our proposals, except to stress the principle that the European model is good”, and that Kosovo must not “become Europe’s Kashmir”. Other issues raised during the debate included the 16 000 people still missing from the region’s wars, and electoral procedures in Albania that are still below EU standards.