§ 1. Dr. NaysmithWhat assistance her Department is providing to Bosnia-Herzegovina; and what plans she has to visit that country. [29610]
§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)My Department has provided more than £400 million of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1992. I visited Bosnia from 1 to 4 February to review progress.
Our priority now is to strengthen Mr. Dodik's new Government in Republika Srpska, given his public support for the Dayton agreement, and to support and encourage refugee return. I am pleased to announce today additional funding of £1 million immediately in budgetary support for the new Government in Republika Srpska and £1.1 million for refugee return and reconciliation work with the stabilisation force and other partners.
§ Dr. NaysmithI thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Does she agree that the election of the new Government is really good news, particularly with regard to the possible return of refugees and the effect that that may have on implementing the Dayton agreement?
§ Clare ShortI agree completely with my hon. Friend: this is a massive opportunity to make significant progress in Bosnia. The new Government in Republika Srpska support the Dayton agreement and want to encourage refugee return. If the international community can reinforce that agreement, if people in Republika Srpska can feel the benefits that will flow from the involvement of the World bank, the European Union and Britain, and if the Government do well in the September elections, there is a chance of real progress in returning refugees. We must seize that opportunity.
§ Mr. FaberI welcome the right hon. Lady's announcement that further funds will be made available for Bosnia. Bosnia is one of many east European and central Asian countries that currently receive funding from the European Union under the PHARE and TACIS democracy programmes. Can the right hon. Lady confirm that the Commission is currently conducting an internal review of those programmes, the focus of which is to remove funding from the majority of countries that need it most, such as Bosnia, and to reallocate it almost exclusively to the first wave of applicant countries for EU membership—supposedly to assist their accession to the European Union? Is that not a blatant attempt at empire building by the Commission at the expense of the more deserving developing democracies, such as Bosnia? Will the right hon. Lady do everything she can to fight any such misuse of aid during Britain's presidency of the EU?
§ Clare ShortI agree that the European Union has had difficulty disbursing its funds in the past. The process has 350 been terribly slow and the programmes have not been as effective as they should. There is now a differentiation between the programmes that will help the accession countries and those that will assist the remaining transition countries. I think that that distinction is sensible because the tasks are different. The task of helping the more advanced countries to adjust to the rules of the European Union is different from helping the less advanced countries, which face terrible problems with poverty and high crime levels and are still only half way to building market economies and democracies. We must differentiate our efforts, but we need to ensure that both European programmes operate more effectively and do not ignore either need.