Government Policy Statement by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on the Conclusion of the EU Summit Meeting in Berlin and on the NATO operation in Yugoslavia Bonn, 26 March 1999

In the course of this week Europe has had to demonstrate its ability to act. The European Council faced in concentrated form some of the greatest challenges it has ever had to deal with: the Kosovo crisis, the resignation of the Commission and Agenda 2000.

I am pleased and proud to be able to tell you today that the European Union under the German Presidency met this challenge.

In the early hours of the morning, after strenuous, hard negotiations in Berlin, we succeeded in adopting Agenda 2000. This Berlin package represents a compromise which required all the parties involved to make concessions. It is a compromise which is sensible and with which all of us can live. That is precisely why it is good and right.

On Wednesday, as President of the European Council and on its behalf, I put forward the name of Romano Prodi for the position of President of the EU Commission. When the proposal has been approved by the European Parliament, we will by the summer once again have a Commission under highly-competent leadership that is able to act.

On Wednesday night NATO started air strikes on military targets in Yugoslavia. The Alliance had been forced to take this step in order to stop further severe and systematic human rights abuses in Kosovo and to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Federal Foreign Minister, the Federal Government and the Contact Group have in the last few weeks and months left no stone unturned to find a peaceful solution to the Kosovo conflict. President Milosevic deceived his own people, the Albanian majority of the population in Kosovo, and the international community again and again.

For months the EU Special Representative Petritsch and his American colleague Hill held talks in intensive shuttle diplomacy with the two parties to the conflict and prepared the ground for a fair agreement. Persistent negotiations took place over several weeks in Rambouillet and Paris. There is no alternative to the agreement tabled which guarantees the human rights of the Albanian majority of the population in Kosovo but also the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia. All parties should have agreed to it.

The aims of this agreement are also shared by Russia. I myself underlined in a telephone conversation with the Russian Prime Minister Primakov that the European Union will continue to develop relations to Russia. We have reached a quality in cooperation with Russia which we for our part are not going to call into question.

In the end the representatives of the Kosovo Albanians agreed to the Rambouillet accord. The Belgrade delegation alone, through its policy of obstruction, made every mediation attempt fail.

At the same time, Milosevic's regime has stepped up its war on the people in Kosovo.

Unspeakable human suffering is the result. More than 250,000 people had to flee from their homes or were expelled by force. In the last six weeks alone a further 80,000 people have attempted to escape the inferno - that is about the same proportion of Kosovo's population as the inhabitants of a metropolis like Berlin is for Germany.

It would have been cynical and irresponsible to stand by and watch this humanitarian catastrophe.

Right up to the end the international community made diplomatic efforts to put an end to the carnage. Foreign Minister Fischer, as President of the EU Council, Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Vollebaek urged President Milosevic in Belgrade to accept the Rambouillet agreement. Lastly, Richard Holbrooke, as US special envoy, made one last-ditch attempt on Monday and Tuesday this week to persuade the Belgrade regime to give way. In vain.

We therefore had no other choice but to carry out NATO's threat together with our Allies and give a clear signal that we will not tolerate the further systematic violation of human rights in Kosovo.

This is the first time since the Second World War that German soldiers have been on a combat mission. I would like to assure you that the Federal Government did not take this decision lightly. But we know that we are acting with the support of the great majority of the German people and also the majority of the German Bundestag across party lines.

I would like to say a few words of sincere thanks to our soldiers and their families. They are performing a difficult and dangerous mission. And although we will do everything we can for their protection and safety we cannot rule out all danger to life and limb. I want them to know that the majority of our citizens greatly appreciate their commitment to humanity and peace. And I believe it is sensible and decent for the German Bundestag to send a signal of solidarity and support for our forces.

The extremist Belgrade leadership bears the sole responsibility for the present situation. It is in their power to stop this military operation immediately. I therefore urge President Milosevic again to stop the fighting in Kosovo at once and to sign the peace treaty.

NATO and the international community at large continue to be willing, with the agreement of the parties to the conflict, to help implement the Rambouillet Accords. NATO units, among them 3000 German soldiers are already at hand to secure a ceasefire militarily. They too should know that they have the backing of the Federal Government and the Bundestag.

At the Special Summit of the European Council in Berlin Europe underlined its responsibility for peaceful development on the continent. We can today say with legitimate pride:

Europe speaks with one voice, even in the face of the difficult mission in Kosovo.

The EU Heads of State and Government decided in Berlin by common accord to ask the former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi to take on the important post of President of the European Commission.

At the same time the Heads of State and Government of the European Union respectfully took note of the resignation of the European Commission. I too would like to take this opportunity to thank the departing Commission under President Jacques Santer once again for the work that it has performed for Europe. Without its preparation, its advice and constructive proposals we would indeed have been hard pressed to reach an adequate agreement at the Special Summit in Berlin.

In accordance with the procedure laid down in the Treaty of Amsterdam, the nomination of Romano Prodi will be presented to the current European Parliament for approval. Once this approval has been obtained, the designated Commission President shall undertake, in cooperation with the Governments of the member states, to prepare the appointment of the new Commission as early as possible.

The Governments of the member states shall then, by common accord with Romano Prodi, name the remaining persons whom they intend to appoint as members of the Commission. This new college shall, already in the summer, be subject to a vote of approval by the new European Parliament. In this way, the Council and Parliament will create the conditions which shall enable the new Commission to begin its work at the earliest possible time and to continue for a full five-year term of office as of January 2000.

The resignation of the Commission threatened the united Europe with a serious institutional crisis. Measured against this fact, it is easy to appreciate the importance of the quick and convincing solution to this problem found in the nomination of Romano Prodi.

Faced with this situation, Europe has again proven that it has the ability to act and to do so decisively.

And I do not mean this in any way only on a pragmatic level. The delegations, ministers, and Heads of State and Government assembled in Berlin were - despite all differences of interest as regards individual points of Agenda 2000 - unanimous in one conviction:

We want to seize with both hands the unique historic opportunity offered to the peoples of Europe by the continuous process of integration. We have already taken the step toward Economic and Monetary Union, and further EU member states will join this Union - the prospects for this were also improved in Berlin.

Today, after 50 years of peace in Europe, we are presented with the opportunity to bind together our peoples and states ever more closely in a spirit of good neighbourliness. This is the task that we have been given by our fathers and mothers, who experienced two terrible wars on this continent. And it is the task that we are called upon daily to perform by our children, for whom a united Europe is already a matter of course on a cultural level.

This common Europe is not something that can be decreed from above or decided upon at a single summit meeting. Nor does it need to be, for it has long existed in the good neighbourliness prevailing in the relations between our peoples.

But the citizens of Europe have a right to governments who can give the European institutions the ability to act and who can maintain in them this ability.

To have achieved this in a difficult situation is the great and resounding success of the Berlin Summit.

The European Union needs, as soon as possible, a strong Commission that will do justice to the principles of efficiency, and transparency and which will be close to the citizens of Europe. We will therefore request the designated Commission President Prodi to draw up a programme in dialogue with the member states, which will outline the working methods of the new Commission. A first exchange of thoughts between the Heads of State and Government and Romano Prodi on such a reform programme will take place on 14 April in Brussels.

We must and indeed we want to achieve a maximum amount of integrity and efficiency in the administration of Community funds, programmes and projects by the Commission. Our citizens are entitled to this too.

The European peoples want integration. They are urging us to take the next step, without which the unification of Europe would remain incomplete: the enlargement of the EU to include the states which are our neighbours to the east. Precisely for this reason the citizens of Europe cannot tolerate any administrative malpractice or policy driven by national egoism.

I am delighted to be able to tell you that at the Berlin Summit we succeeded, after approximately three years of negotiations, in reaching agreement on the Development and Cooperation Agreement with South Africa. In this way Europe proves that it is serious in its commitment to the "new South Africa", and also shows that the united Europe is in no way an exclusive club for the rich of this world.

I am particularly pleased that we were able to reach this consensus on the last day of President Nelson Mandela's term of office - a man who has made tremendous sacrifices in his fight for human rights and has always been a role model of mine. I had made a personal promise to him that this Agreement would be concluded.

A good compromise is tough on everyone. That is true also of the Agenda 2000 compromise we have reached in Berlin.

Nevertheless, all partners can be satisfied with what has been accomplished. Considering how far apart the positions were at the beginning, a satisfactory and balanced outcome has been achieved.

The agreement we reached in Berlin sends a clear signal to Europe's citizens, to the markets and to the accession candidates. A signal that in the end all of us have put our common responsibility ahead of our particular interests.

The "Berlin package" gives the European Union a viable basis for action. Two principles are of paramount importance: stability in terms of expenditure and solidarity.

We have agreed on a framework for strict budgetary discipline also in Europe. At the same time, however, solidarity among the member states will be maintained.

In Berlin we decided on an EU expenditure ceiling, namely, 1.27 percent of EU GNP, which will apply until the year 2006.

By 2004 half of the EU's own VAT resources will in two stages be replaced by GNP resources.

With regard to the so-called traditional own resources, we are raising the collection cost rate from 10 to 25 percent. As far as the British rebate and the relevant financing mechanism are concerned, we have agreed modifications that will make for greater equity in the matter of member states' contributions.

In the Common Agricultural Policy we have after a long struggle managed to find an acceptable solution. The key points are the price reductions for cereals and beef and the ceiling on agricultural expenditure agreed at the Petersberg Summit.

On the Cohesion Fund, too, we have reached agreement. As regards the structural funds, we have made sure the new German Länder will for the next seven years continue to be top priority areas - and that will include also a fair transitional period for East Berlin.

Like others, we Germans did not achieve everything we had dearly hoped for.

We did however, secure one very important success. The ceiling on expenditure was set as Germany and a number of other partners had demanded both in our national interests and in the interest of Europe. And we agreed in Berlin to stop and reverse the rising trend in Germany's net contributions.

But, ladies and gentlemen, this Government could not remedy at a single stroke the situation left by its predecessors. Here in the Bundestag we all at the time - the Government and the Opposition - jointly approved the Edinburgh accords which brought about Germany's current position as net contributor. Now the moment has come to open a new chapter.

Germany has assumed the Presidency of the EU Council at a most critical juncture. By mid-year we will have held four summits of Heads of State and Government. No previous Presidency has had such an immense burden of work.

With the nomination of Romano Prodi an imminent institutional crisis in the Union has been averted.

The situation in Kosovo has, for the first time since the Second World War, forced Europe, a community of shared values, to use military means to prevent a humanitarian disaster.

With the Berlin package we have laid a sound foundation for moving ahead on Eastern enlargement of the European Union. This is and will remain our most urgent and paramount task. Preparing the European Union both in structural and financial terms for the accession of new members has been and continues to be high on the European agenda.

At the Cologne Summit in early June we also aim to agree on an employment pact and a timetable for institutional reform of the Union. As this shows, we are serious about our role as advocate of the candidate countries.

With the compromise reached in Berlin, we have made real headway towards achieving our goals. Thank you very much.

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