Mr. Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Kosovo crisis is not yet over. It is true that more than 90% of the refugees and displaced persons have returned to their homes. It is also true that their feeling of relief and even jubilation is real, after ten years of what they see as oppression by the authorities in Belgrade. But appearances are deceptive. Once the feeling of happiness over being safely back home passes after the first months. Once the reserves brought back from Albania and Macedonia run out. Once the weather starts getting colder in September, the situation will look very different. Then the international community will be put to the first real test in Kosovo.

On the humanitarian side, the main priority is to provide basic humanitarian aid to a large part of the population:

- food aid, as only little agricultural activity has taken place this year and most have no income,

- emergency medical aid, as most of the earlier system remains para1ysed.

In addition, emergency repairs to destroyed houses need to be finished before the onset of winter, ensuring that families have at least one heated, winter proof room. Wells need to be cleaned from the dirt and dead animals thrown into them. Families need to be supplied with beds, mattresses, blankets, stoves, firewood, candles etc. Agriculture needs to be restarted - the winter wheat needs to be sown in October at the latest.

ECHO is therefore now working hard with our partners to ensure that all this is done on time. Fortunately, we had time to plan and prepare ourselves before the re-entry into Kosovo. We are now working on the implementation of a Return Plan drawn up together with UNHCR in Skopje in May, and we are fairly confident that at least the necessary minimum will have been done on time before the winter. But for many this will be a difficult winter, like it was last year. There should be no ambiguity about that. Only next year will there be a possibility to see a return to normality in Kosovo.

Mr. Chairman,

This is why the European Commission on 16 July allocated a further 196 million Euros to humanitarian aid for the Kosovo crisis. Total aid this year from ECHO is now 378 million Euros. This new package includes a further 30 million Euros for UNHCR, making ECHO by far the biggest donor to UNHCR in this context, with a total of 63.3 million Euros provided so far. It also includes a further 20 million Euros to the Red Cross movement, bringing the total ECHO contribution over 50 million Euros this year. Equally important is that the new decision provides for the continuation of aid to the neighbouring republics - Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. Although most refugees have returned to Kosovo, this is not the case for all, and aid to those who choose to stay must continue. Furthermore, the consequences of the refugee crisis do not disappear when the refugees return. Camps need to be cleaned and the land restored to its previous condition. Aid to host families needs to be maintained, as they have drawn on their last reserves. Aid to the local population needs to be continued and be phased out in a controlled manner which corresponds to the normalisation of the situation in the countries concerned. The end of the refugee crisis should not and will not lead to the abrupt end to the humanitarian aid to the countries who generously received the refugees. 29 million have preliminarily been allocated for this purpose.

Mr. Chairman,

The main challenge for us now is the situation in Serbia. The Kosovo crisis has meant a serious degradation of the situation in Serbia, with major physical and economic infrastructure in shambles. It is without doubt going to be a difficult winter for many in Serbia this year. ECHO already before the crisis was implementing a programme for the 125,000 most vulnerable refugees, out of 500,000, from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is likely that more of them will now need humanitarian assistance. In addition, more than 170,000 Serbs and Roma have arrived from Kosovo in Serbia. Many of them are likely to end up in collective accommodation and depend on humanitarian aid for their livelihood. Also the situation for the most vulnerable groups in Serbia (pensioners, chronically ill, handicapped, institutionalised etc.) is likely to deteriorate as the country's economy is now in shambles. We have no results yet of the different assessments going on, but we can foresee that they will paint a grim picture of the situation in Serbia.

In the new decision, ECHO has earmarked 20 million Euros for Serbia, but a further 50 million have been put in reserve, should additional aid be required. Already, ECHO again has permanent expatriate staff at our office in Belgrade, who actively participates in the assessment work going on. Humanitarian aid is not the solution to the problems in Serbia, and we should be careful not to try to use humanitarian aid for this purpose. These problems are political, while humanitarian aid is not. This is a distinction we should be very careful in keeping very, very clear.

Mr. Chairman,

Let me end by returning shortly to Kosovo. I mentioned in the beginning that the Kosovo crisis is not over. Humanitarian aid is still needed, and will be needed for some time. As for Serbia, however, the main problems in Kosovo are not humanitarian, and again we cannot expect humanitarian aid to solve them. The real challenge is political. The creation of a politically stable, multi-ethnic, open and economically prosperous Kosovo is going to take Herculean efforts from the international community. The task entrusted to UNMIK is therefore perhaps an ungrateful one. But I would like to assure the Special Representative of the Secretary-General that we will do all that we can to co-operate and help you out in this challenging but difficult task. Valuable time has already gone by, and the arrival of autumn in September is going to be the first real test for the international community in Kosovo. Let's make sure that we are ready for it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.