Other areas of co-operation include human rights and democracy, unexplored ordonnance UXO clearance (de-mining) and environment protection.

The main priorities in the 2004 Work Programme are to eliminate the threat that antipersonnel landmines/unexploded ordinance (APL/UXO) represent for the affected populations, through mine clearance, mine risk education, risk reduction and destruction of landmines in stock or on dumping grounds.

65. Insists that there should be no diminution of support by the Commission and Council for mine action and stresses the importance of assistance to countries and NGOs engaged in activities to clear anti-personnel landmines and other unexploded ordnance, as well as assistance to mine victims; urges the Commission to publish regular progress reports to clarify how far the Member States of the enlarged EU adhere to their obligations under the Ottawa Treaty (a global ban on anti-personnel landmines) and to what extent these states follow Parliament's expressed wish that cluster submunitions no longer be used;

65. Insists that there should be no diminution of support by the Commission and Council for mine action and stresses the importance of assistance to countries and NGOs engaged in activities to clear anti-personnel landmines and other unexploded ordnance, as well as assistance to mine victims; urges the Commission to publish regular progress reports to clarify how far the Member States of the enlarged EU adhere to their obligations under the Ottawa Treaty (a global ban on anti-personnel landmines) and to what extent these states follow Parliament's expressed wish that cluster submunitions no longer be used;

The main priorities in the work programme are actions to eliminate the threat that antipersonnel landmines/unexploded ordinance (APL/UXO) represent for the affected populations and to alleviate their dramatic effects (through mine clearance, mine risk education, risk reduction and destruction of landmines in stocks or dumping grounds); and actions to build and reinforce local capacity and to increase mine action efficiency and effectiveness (impact surveys and associated tools).

NGOs have sprouted up in response to the need and yet, some four years after the first United Nation's landmine conference in Geneva and over a year after the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention, we must recognise that many countries and thousands of people, usually in the poorest regions of the world, are still terribly afflicted by anti-personnel landmines and unexploded munitions.