*Iraqi Kurdistan Mission to the EU welcomes Parliament Breakthrough
Press Release

The Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Parliament has adopted the draft report presented by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, on the situation in Iraq eleven years after the Gulf war.

Thanks to the cooperation of the rapporteur, Baroness Nicholson – from the Liberal ELDR group - and the full support of the Greens and the European Socialist Party (PSE), many amendments about the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan have been adopted.
 

•  For the first time, the European Parliament welcomes the progress realised in the last ten years with regard to democratisation in Iraqi Kurdistan. 

•  It shows recognition of the Kurdish Administration and its efforts to establish a democratic civic society.  

•  The European Parliament report, ‘calls on the Council and the Commission to set up in the shortest time possible an active strategy includind the support for the democratic experience of the Kurdish administration in Northern Iraq and projects for the development of civil society in this autonomous region’. 

The Head of the Iraqi Kurdistan Government Mission to the EU, Burhan Jaf, was delighted by the vote.

« As well as making sensible recommendations about working through the UN when dealing with Saddam Hussein – the European Parliament has for the first time noted the democratic progress made under the Iraqi Kurdish administration.  It also notes the full cooperation with the International Community in the implementation of the ‘Oil for Food’ programme.

« Iraqi Kurdistan is still a fledgling democracy – our government aspires to a federal political future for the whole of Iraq brought about by peaceful means and negotiation.

« Such support and recognition of our work is vital to ensure that these objectives to create a true democracy in Iraq founded on human rights are fulfilled. »

The European Parliament calls on the Council and the Commission ‘to set up a help programme directed towards that region’. 

Commenting on this, Burhan Jaf added, « It is my hope that if adopted in the Parliament’s plenary session in May, the report will open new opportunities for closer cooperation between the European Union and the Iraqi Kurdistan.»

ENDS.

For further information please call Olivier Bobichon on +32-2-513 72 28 OR GSM 0494 326638