Brussels, 01/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 30 September, Christos Stylianides, the 56-year-old Cypriot candidate for the post of commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management in the Junker Commission, attended his hearing before MEPs on the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. He responded to questions put to him with humanity, conviction and professionalism and clearly won MEPs over. This politician from the Conservative Disy party is a dental surgeon by profession and was his government's spokesman before becoming an MEP in May. He was congratulated on his European commitment, experience, enthusiasm and the “very comprehensive answers” he provided, an opinion immediately given by Linda McAvan (S&D United Kingdom), who chairs the committee. He said that he was honoured to be put forward for “a portfolio at the heart of universal values” and received applause on a number of occasions.
He was aware that his task was not an easy one, given the multiplicity and intensity of man-made crises such as those in Syria, Iraq, DCR, South Sudan, Palestine and Myanmar or natural disasters such as “Ebola, an enormous natural disaster and threat to global security”. He called for “a vision of political courage and dignity”. He believes that his responsibility is to “provide this leadership and transform it into tangible results on the ground” in a world where humanitarian needs are increasing due to conflict, climate change, extreme poverty and famine. He said: “The challenges are enormous, as is my enthusiasm. This portfolio is full of emergency situations. I learn quickly. I will work day and night to deepen my knowledge”. He paid homage to the work of his predecessor, Kristalina Georgieva, whose line he will follow in the general approach towards humanitarian aid and crisis management, in coordination with international organisations.
He has many priorities: - continuing implementation of the key mandate: providing aid to victims, “not too little and not too late” in major crises as well as those that have been “forgotten”; - “to be the spokesperson for the most vulnerable and those without a voice”, in cooperation with the high representative for foreign affairs, with particular attention being paid to violence against Syrian and Congolese women and girls; - defending the specificities and principles of independence, neutrality and the humanity of humanitarian aid and striving to ensure that this is not “exploited”; - continuing to invest in resilience, hand-in-hand with the commissioner for co-operation and development; - fighting Ebola through a genuinely joint approach with member states and major international partner organisations; - continuing to protect European citizens through the implementation of new EU legislation on civil protection and predicting and preventing disasters.
In a reference to the global conference on the Hyogo Framework next March in Istanbul, he said that, “above all, crisis management means working on the whole disaster cycle” to make disaster alerts a priority. He said that the international humanitarian system was under pressure and that the international summit in 2016 would help improve the system's capacity.
In reply to Davor Ivo Stier (EPP, Croatia), who asked him about assessing the needs relating to Ebola, Stylianides explained that it was “urgent to immediately respond in a concerted manner and that member states had to take action”. He announced that he would be travelling to the regions affected, his “first trip to develop an opinion on coordination on the ground”. He also indicated that he was already “in contact with Valerie Amos from OCHA and Antonio Guterres from the UNHCR” in order to extend international cooperation to tackle Ebola and other crises. He provided assurances to Arne Lietz (S&D, Germany) that he was ready to “open the dialogue” on updating the 1996 European regulation on humanitarian aid, in order to improve the EU's humanitarian response, “but it is up to the College to decide”.
Charles Goerens (ALDE, Luxembourg) was alarmed by the systemic dysfunction in payments and commitment appropriations that legalised the non-respect of commitments and which was in danger of being short of funds in having to deal with crises, “when we have stopped scraping the bottoms of drawers”. As a member of the EP's budgets committee, the commissioner-candidate said that he was not ready for a humanitarian aid exemptions regime but hoped that they would, “by 2015, manage to convince on the specificity of humanitarian action and that this is the only action that is really urgent”. In reply to Karol Karski (ECR, Poland), the xcommissioner-candidate confirmed that he intended to work proactively towards preparing a united EU position for the 2016 humanitarian summit in Istanbul, which would ultimately produce better standards on aid after 2016. In response to Kostas Chrysogonos (GUE, Greece), who asked him whether he was prepared to put a project on hold if fraud had been proved and halt the provision of humanitarian aid, as was the case in Somalia, for example, he replied in the affirmative: “We can trust the Court of Auditors. We must be ruthless: money for humanitarian aid is sacrosanct and can save lives, feed children, there should be no doubts about this”. (AN)