Memorandum submitted by Mr Poul Nielson,
Member of the European Commission (Development and Humanitarian
Aid)
ANNUAL REPORTING ON COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT
As requested, please find below the elements which
justify the fact that the Commission failed to meet the annual
reporting requirements (to the Council and the Parliament) set
out under the 1991 Council Resolution on "Human Rights, Democracy
and Development".
In general, preparing annual reports on the
implementation of the Resolution have been considered rather difficult
and extremely time/resources consuming when more comprehensive
reports have been available.
Nevertheless, other considerations are to be
taken into account:
— we have witnessed a multiplication
of actions in human rights, democracy and development since the
adoption of the Council Resolution in 1991. This, of course, has
been fully in line with the spirit of the Resolution but these
actions were undertaken through an increased number of funding
instruments and through different directorates;
— the situation was complicated by
the restructuring of Commission services and by separating the
responsibilities of ACP countries from those of other developing
countries in Asia, Latin America and other third countries into
the different Directorate Generals;
— considering that at the same time
the Commission services lead to a preparation of a consolidated
report on utilisation of European Initiative for Human Rights
and Democratisation (EIHRD, chapter B7-7 in the budget) funding,
in order to simplify the approach, was decided and a report on
utilisation of EIHRD funds 1996-99 will be finalised and will
include also detailed information on the themes in the Council
Resolution "Human Rights, Democracy and Development"
of 1991.
Mr Poul Nielson, Member of the European Commission
(Development and Humanitarian Aid)
July 2000
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