BRUSSELS, Belgium -- EU efforts have failed to help improve the situation in Iraq, a European Parliament report said Wednesday, calling for the 27-nation union to expand its presence on the ground. Since 2003, the European Union has committed more than $1.2 billion for reconstruction. But "Europe can do much more and much better, namely by ... considerably expanding its presence on the ground and by finding more creative ways to use its resources," the report said. Lawmakers from the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee called for the EU to expand its presence by operating on the ground in the Kurdish region in the north, among others, and by boosting its operations in the cities of Basra and Irbil. They urged the EU to debate a new strategy in Iraq with the United States and, with Washington, to hold talks with Syria and Iran to discuss Iraq's future "without prejudice to any other issue of concern." The report also recommended channeling aid into justice, human rights, financial and budget management, health and education. Lawmakers also called for strengthened border controls that would reduce the flow of weapons into the country, and for a legally binding EU code of conduct on arms exports. The EU should make it easier for Iraqis to find refuge in its member states and scrap "arbitrary criteria to granting protection and prevent any forced return," the report said. Some 40,000 Iraqi refugees are estimated to have reached the EU in 2007 _ double the number in 2006, which was twice the number as in 2005. The 785-member European Parliament is based in Strasbourg, France.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
