Brussels, 20/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The growing number of humanitarian crises calls for increased funding for humanitarian aid, greater coordination of operations and, lastly, the creation of a European civil protection force, which the European Parliament has been calling for over a number of years, in order to implement the report by Michel Barnier of May 2006. The European Parliament reiterated this call in Strasbourg on 18 January, in a resolution in the mid-term summary and prospects of the “European consensus on humanitarian aid”, the inter-institutional (EP/Commission/Council) agreement which since December 2007 has offered a framework for increased efficiency of the humanitarian policy of the EU. Michèle Striffler (EPP, France), the permanent rapporteur on European humanitarian aid, was behind this resolution (EUROPE 10274).
Agreeing with its rapporteur, the Parliament laments the low level of involvement of the member states in implementing the consensus. It takes the view that the role of the working group on humanitarian aid and food aid within the Council should be reinforced, amongst other things to ensure that the consensus is better embedded in the national humanitarian strategies. The MEPs also regret the politicisation of humanitarian aid, which runs counter to the principles of international humanitarian law. They also deplore the fact that little progress has been made to improve the link between emergency aid, rehabilitation and development.
They argue that if proof were needed, the recent tragedies in Haiti and Pakistan have demonstrated the need to reinforce the instruments available to the EU to deal with natural disasters. The Parliament therefore calls on the Commission to present ambitious legislative proposals to establish a European civil protection force, based on improving the current civil protection mechanism and pooling existing national resources, a scheme that would not bring about major additional costs.
The Parliament is in favour of increased humanitarian aid funding and calls on the budgetary authority directly to transfer all or some of the emergency reserves to the initial budget of DG ECHO. It urges the Commission to continue its reflection on the potential negative impact of humanitarian aid in the areas of intervention - amongst other things, the potential destabilisation of the economic and social structures and the effect on the natural environment - and to develop strategies which take account of these effects from the planning stage of the projects. For the management of large-scale crises outside the territory of the EU, it calls for the creation of specific and transparent rules governing cooperation and coordination between the EEAS and the Commission, and calls for guaranteed visibility of resources and capability implemented on the ground. The Parliament asserts that the distinction between the mandates of military and humanitarian actors should remain very clear and stresses the importance for military resources and capability to be used only as a last resort and in a very limited number of cases, in support of humanitarian aid operations. (A.N./transl.fl)