Procedure completed
Legal Basis RoP 135
Activites
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2015/10/08
Debate in Parliament
- Debate in Parliament
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T8-0342/2015
summary
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the Central African Republic. The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, Greens/EFA, ALDE, and EFDD groups. Members noted that the country was confronted with the worst humanitarian crisis since its independence in 1960, affecting the entire population of 4.6 million people, half of whom were children. Expressing deep concern about the worsening political and humanitarian situation, which could bring the country to the edge of a civil war if the latest violence was not contained, Parliament deplored the loss of lives and strongly condemned the attacks against humanitarian organisations and residences during the latest outbreak of violence. It called on the CAR authorities to focus on fighting against impunity and on the re-establishment of the rule of law. It welcomed the creation of the Special Criminal Court to prosecute grave human rights violations committed in the country since 2003 and stressed that international financial and technical support was essential for the functioning of the Court. Accordingly Members called for an international pledging meeting for donors as soon as possible. They went on to call on the CAR transitional authorities and the international community to address the root causes of the crisis, such as the widespread poverty, economic disparities and inequalities, rising unemployment, and the lack of redistribution of wealth from the country’s natural resources via the state budget. At the same time, Members deplored the fact that although the UN had declared an embargo on weapons, the strengthening of militias continued. Stressing that disarming armed groups must be an absolute priority, especially ahead of the presidential and general elections due to take place in the CAR by the end of the year. Parliament called on all parties to abide by the disarmament agreement as signed on 10 May 2015. EU response: Parliament went on to welcome the EU military advisory mission (EUMAM RCA), launched by the European Council in March 2015 and aiming to support projects to reinstate the police and gendarmerie capacities for community policing and riot control, restore the joint operational command centre, reinforce the judiciary and rehabilitate the prison facilities. At the same time, Members welcomed the scaling‑up of the EU and Member States’ humanitarian engagement with the CAR in light of the evolving needs, noting that since May 2015 the EU had increased its assistance for the CAR with a total of EUR 72 million, including resources for humanitarian aid (with EUR 10 million of fresh funding), budget support (with an additional EUR 40 million) and a new contribution to the EU Trust Fund for the CAR (an additional EUR 22 million). However, Parliament called for the EU to do everything in its power to provide better-coordinated and more effective assistance to the people of the CAR. It stressed that life-saving assistance should be provided to those in need within the CAR, as well as to refugees in neighbouring countries. Member States, and other donors, should scale up their contributions to the EU Fund for the CAR, the Bêkou Trust Fund, whose aim was to promote the stabilisation and reconstruction of the Central African Republic taking into consideration the need to better link the reconstruction/development programmes with the humanitarian response. Diamond trade: noting that armed groups profited from the timber and diamond trade by controlling sites and ‘taxing’ or extorting ‘protection’ money from miners and traders, and that CAR traders have purchased diamonds worth several million dollars without adequately investigating whether they were financing armed groups, Parliament urged the CAR diamond traders to prove due diligence. It also urged the international diamond companies to address Kimberly Process failures in the diamond supply chain from the CAR. The CAR authorities and foreign companies were called upon help strengthen governance in the extractives sector by abiding by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. International diamond companies should look closely at the origin of diamonds in order to avoid fuelling the conflict by purchasing illicitly extracted and traded diamonds from the CAR. Parliament urged European companies that were trading with CAR logging companies to abide by the EU Timber Regulation, and called on the EU to robustly enforce its Timber Regulation with regard to importers of CAR timber.
Documents
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0342/2015
History
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Rules of Procedure EP 135
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Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 135
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