Linda McAvan (S&D). – Madam President, firstly I want to join with Ms Valenciano in what she said. I heard colleagues over there talking about what happened to their grandparents 50-70 years ago in Europe. I am afraid that human rights abuses, torture and oppression are realities now in Burundi today. That is what we are here to talk about. I wonder what the people of Burundi must think when they see a debate about a very serious situation in their country being used to make a cheap political point by people over there.

Let us go back to this very serious debate. I hope some of you will think hard about that, and maybe think about the people of Burundi, for whom this debate is extremely important because it is about their country and their aspiration to live in the kind of democracy that you and I are lucky enough to live in.

Commissioner, I apologise to you as well on behalf this House because you have come here to give us a very good statement, a very clear statement, which covers all the essential aspects of the situation in Burundi. Since we last spoke about it, things are clearly not better. As chair of the Committee on Development, I have received first-hand information from people on the ground about what is happening – about the human rights abuses, about the youth militias linked to the government which are causing violence, about the intimidation and all the issues that our colleagues have spoken about, and about the real hardship and the suffering that is being caused by the instability in the country, with people fleeing over borders.

I am pleased, as the Chair of the committee, that we have stepped up humanitarian aid –unlike UKIP, who do not seem to think that people need that aid – people in Rwanda, in Tanzania, in DRC, where people have fled their country. Last month, Commissioner Mimica reminded us that the EU is a major donor to Burundi, a country which comes 180th out of 187 on the Human Development Index.

In the last EDF programme we doubled our aid to Burundi. I know that people here are asking whether we should continue aiding that country in this period. I do not think that poor people should ever pay the price for the folly of their own government. We should remind the Government of Burundi of its responsibilities in respect of human rights under the Cotonou Agreement and remind it that the Council did adopt conclusions on this on 18 May, and the Government should be clear that we are looking at what we can do, because we want the elections to take place.

I want to join others who have commended the work of our chief observer, David Martin, in the last few weeks; he has been working with my other colleagues. We want democracy in Burundi. We want the elections to take place under decent conditions. There are a few weeks now to put things right. I hope the Government of Burundi is watching this debate today and is listening to what has been said, and I hope it will act accordingly.