Brussels, 06/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to grant a further sum of €30 million to help the Philippines recover from the powerful typhoon Yoland/Haiyan which devasted the archipelago last November.
The aid, from the European Commission's development budget, was announced on Thursday 5 June at the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) on disaster risk reduction and management (Manila, 4-6 June), which was attended by European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Aid Kristalina Georgieva.
Returning to Tacloban, the region most hard-hit by the typhoon, Georgieva was able to take stock of progress made with the humanitarian aid, and of what must still be done. “Seven months on, many survivors are still struggling to recover”, she said.
The additional aid will enable essential medicines to be provided, the quality of health services to be improved, and the reconstruction plan of the Philippines' government to be supported.
Stressing the importance of combining short-term relief operations and long-term aid, European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs recalled that “since the disaster we have been active in focusing our development cooperation on activities that help the affected communities to recover and reconstruct, but also to prepare for possible future typhoons”.
Since the typhoon, which claimed over 6,000 lives and left over 11,000 displaced, the Commission has granted €30 million in humanitarian aid to the benefit of around 1.2 million people, and €10 million in development aid. Once member state contributions are added to this, EU aid amounts to €740 million. (AN)