Annual report of European Reconstruction Agency (Regulation (EC) No 2267/2000)

The committee unanimously adopted the own-initiative report by Ursula STENZEL (EPP-ED, A) on the European Agency for Reconstruction. It was critical of the Commission's failure to deliver by March 2002, as had been promised, a report on enlarging the Agency's territorial scope to include the whole of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and FYROM. The committee therefore called on the Commission to submit to Parliament as a matter of urgency a report on its future strategy for south-east Europe, focusing particularly on the way EU aid is administered and including a clear action plan for the Agency, in particular regarding its relations with the EU delegations in these countries. Bearing in mind the special circumstances in which the Agency had been forced to operate, MEPs argued that, in view of the shift in the goals, tasks and territorial scope of the Agency with regard to development policy, the regulation governing it should be amended. It would also be best, in their view, to boost cooperation between the Agency and the Commission services responsible for EU external assistance. The report therefore called on the Agency and the various donors to coordinate international aid better and make better use of the available financial resources.�