Support for the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR)

The committee adopted the report (consultation procedure) by Armin LASCHET (EPP/ED, D) amending the proposal for a regulation on financial support for interim civilian administration of certain regions and for the implementation of peace agreements. The aim of the new proposal was to transfer to the first pillar the financing of two of the joint actions decided under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) which until now had been financed by the CFSP budget. The proposal also provided for the possibility of financing bodies which might be set up in future by the international community, should the Commission decide to support them. The first point which the committee wished to make clear was that, under the 1999 Interinstitutional Agreement, all Community actions required the prior adoption of a basic act and any new operation would therefore need a specific legal basis. It accordingly tabled an amendment rejecting the proposal's formula of an open-ended annex and ensuring that the two bodies mentioned in the Annex to the proposal as it currently stood (the UN interim administrative mission in Kosovo and the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina) appeared in the legislative text. While welcoming the transfer of such operations to the first pillar, which would enable Parliament to become more involved in the legislative consultation procedure, the committee nevertheless pointed out that the proposal involved extra spending under heading 4 of the financial perspective, which was already under great strain since the Kosovo crisis. It adopted an amendment stipulating that financing should be in the form of a specific grant, and that financing decisions had to be adopted within the limits of the funding available under that heading, which might be reviewed in future. The committee also called for the European Parliament and the Council to be duly informed each year about the financing agreements to be adopted and about the implementation of those agreements, including on-the-spot inspections and the use of the Community contribution to the bodies concerned. Lastly, the committee called for the management committee to be composed of one representative only per Member State, on the grounds that this would give better balance to an operation that was being brought within the Community sphere.