WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1184/98 by Graham MATHER to the Commission. Human rights in the Dominican Republic
11. 12. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 386/91 Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission (28 May 1998) The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that there were 511 submissions within the framework of the particular Raphael action in which the European Art Centreí presented its proposal and that only 43 projects were selected mainly due to the very limited budgetary resources allocated to the Raphael programme. This was very clearly stated in the reply of 18 February 1998 given to the unsuccessful applicants. The selection of the projects was made on the basis of the recommendations of a group of independent experts as well as with the approval of the Raphael committee, which consists of representatives of the national authorities from all the Member States. Furthermore, in a recent reply (25 March 1998) to a complaint by the applicant organisation the Commission explained that despite the positive appreciation of the project in question by a group of independent experts, it was not possible to support financially their proposal as well as many others due to the very limited available resources. As to the selected projects and the amounts allocated to each one of them, the relevant documentation is forwarded directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliamentís Secretariat. (98/C 386/120) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1184/98 by Graham Mather (PPE) to the Commission (29 April 1998) Subject: Human rights in the Dominican Republic What action is the European Union taking to improve the human rights situation in the Dominican Republic? Will this action benefit Haitian plantation workers? Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (11 June 1998) Historically speaking, relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti have been tense. The origin of it has been the presence of Haitian workers in the sugar production of the Dominican Republic. The Commission is attentive to this situation and has over the years encouraged a dialogue between the two countries, which is slowly producing positive results. In fact, since 1995 one can notice an improvement in relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to which the democratically elected presidents of the two countries have largely contributed. President PrØval visited Santo Domingo in March 1996 and President Fernandez Reyna is expected to visit Port-au-Prince in June 1998. The Commission, with the support of the Member States, is financing through the budget line B-7020 (Human rights and democratisation) a campaign of civic education which was beneficial during the legislative and municipal elections of May 1998 in the Dominican Republic. Under the responsibility of the Commission delegations in Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince, technical meetings (headed by the national authorizing officers of the two countries) have taken place in the recent past with the objective to design common actions and programmes jointly benefiting the two countries in the areas of environment, transport and infrastructure (all of which will be financed by the European development fund). One of the most important and sensitive projects which the Dominican government has proposed to be funded by the Commission focuses precisely on the support to migrant workers (mainly Haitian labourers) in sugar production areas ( Bateyesí) of the Dominican Republic