Emma Bonino - SPEAKING NOTES

Madame Chairman,

Ministers,

distinguished delegates

1. I wish to congratulate the HCR, Sadako Ogata, and President Sommaruga for their comprehensive presentations on the humanitarian situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as on the prospects for the months ahead.

There is no doubt that humanitarian assistance to the people of Bosnia is, and will remain, an urgent priority for the international community. More than 2.700.000 people in the Republic still depend today on humanitarian aid: this figure alone is a powerful reminder that more time, resources and political resolve will be needed to deal with this ominous legacy of the conflict.

2. The European Union through its Humanitarian Office - ECHO - as well as through bilateral contributions from its member States, has so far sustained a very large share of the financial burden connected with humanitarian aid. The European Commission alone has allocated, since the beginning of the conflict, 1.180 MECU to finance assistance programmes throughout former Yugoslavia and a very relevant share of these funds has been channelled through UN agencies (in primus: the UNHCR, with 185 MECU) and the ICRC.

3. The EU - as stated again by the Council of Ministers on 4 December - remains committed to the continuation of humanitarian aid, for as long as it is necessary.

In this perspective, the Commission has adopted a new financial plan worth 110.38 MECU, and intended to cover the needs identified for the incoming winter season. Out of this plan, designed for the whole of former Yugoslavia, 73.7 MECU (i.e. 66.8%) are intended for programmes in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I would also like to recall that 22 MECU out of this new decision will finance UNHCR programmes, and that 10 MECU will go to the ICRC and the Red Cross Federation.

With these very substantial contributions, the Commission intends to reaffirm its condition that the HCR must remain the "lead agency" on the ground for all matters concerning refugees and displaced in the region; and that the ICRC must be allowed to perform its critical and unique role of protection of victims, whoever those may be, including of course war prisoners and the like.

4. We are very much concerned with the assessment that the coming winter months will still be characterized by widespread emergency in Bosnia. Whereas logistic conditions of delivery of humanitarian aid have improved dramatically since the application of the cease-fire - in terms of access, security, avoiding distortion of convoys - basic aid supplies such as shelter, food, medicines are still very much in need in many areas, and climatic conditions are rapidly worsening.

5. An orderly process of repatriation and reintegration of refugees and displaced should in our view be carefully planned and prepared in the coming weeks and months; but will more likely be engaged in earnest at the end of the winter.

I believe there is total consensus around this table on the critical importance of managing this process smoothly and efficiently, for a sound recomposition of democratic structures throughout Bosnia, and in view of the electoral dynamic foreseen. But the complexity of this task should not be underestimated: war and hate will have taken their toll, in terms of breaking people's confidence in re-building multi-ethnic (or rather multi-religious) local communities both within the Moslem/Croat Federation and within the "Serbian entity". And psychological factors do count when dealing with people, homes and local communities.

6. Beyond the emergency of the next few months, humanitarian assistance should make a quality leap to prepare the transition towards rehabilitation and reconstruction. For this purpose, programmes will have to be adapted to facilitate the returnees reintegration into existing socio-economic structures. The focus of assistance should therefore shift, allowing for the beneficiaries to overcome total dependency on external aid and with a view to resuming whatever productive or professional activity is made possible by the reconstruction process, hopefully underway soon.

7. I also wish to reiterate that the Commission - and indeed, the EU as a whole - remain committed to the principles of impartiality and neutrality of humanitarian aid. The faces of those suffering throughout Bosnia - too often those of the most vulnerable: elderly, women and children - are the faces of a human predicament, to which we should respond on the basis of humanity and solidarity.

We will therefore continue to finance assistance to those in need, wherever they may be, and with no political conditionality.

8. Finally, I would appeal to the Conference not to set up very complex or multi-layered structures to deal with humanitarian issues. The fact that few people have died for want of basic necessities in Bosnia, despite the harshness of the conflict and the collapse of social services, is in itself a tangible sign if success of humanitarian aid efforts to date - those efforts have been carried out with short lines of communications and an almost natural division of labour among the (not many) humanitarian actors knowledgeable and present on the field.

Let's not mix up structures which are intended to manage complex financial programmes and medium-term structural interventions, with the minimum of coordination and information required to avoid duplication of efforts and to ensure that humanitarian responses remain, indeed, speedy and efficient.