madam president all four countries to which the commission has today proposed to give macro-financial assistance have been seriously affected by the current economic and financial crisis
their economies are in a serious situation and it is clear that a way out from this crisis must be found
in the case of georgia the proposed macro-financial assistance of eur forty-six million in the form of grant instalments is aimed at supporting georgia's recovery after that country experienced a severe economic downturn following the eruption of the military conflict with russia and the global financial crisis
the eur one hundred million for armenia is forecast to have an immediate impact on armenia's balance of payments and would in this way contribute to the alleviation of financial constraints on the implementation of the authorities economic programme and to financing the budget deficit
serbia however badly affected by the financial and economic crisis is rapidly returning to political stability
as a balkan country it is a potential candidate country for eu membership and has signed a stabilisation and association agreement
for this reason it should also be helped
politically speaking bosnia and herzegovina is a potential candidate country which has also signed a stabilisation and association agreement and it is in the interests of the european union to assist it
to conclude i restate my belief that we as the european parliament must show responsibility and political commitment in giving these countries the macro-financial assistance they need now rather than discussing this at length under the ordinary legislative procedure
for the above reasons on behalf of the ppe group i suggest we have the proposal for macro-financial assistance to these countries adopted now
i ask my colleagues to support it unanimously
