MEPs on the Development Committee (DEVE) on Tuesday (9 November) set out the European Parliament’s strategic priorities and policy recommendations ahead of the EU Humanitarian Forum in January 2022.
The own-initiative report by Norbert Neuser (S&D, Germany) on new directions for EU humanitarian action was adopted by a show of hands with 20 votes (2 against and 2 abstentions).
It is the DEVE Committee’s response to the European Commission’s March Communication on ‘EU Humanitarian Action: New Challenges, Same Principles’, which it welcomes (see EUROPE 12800/18, 12675/1).
To address increasingly frequent and complex humanitarian crises in the context of a global funding gap, the report calls for the EU to advocate for greater international responsibility sharing and increased global humanitarian funding.
To set an example, EU Member States should do their fair share by allocating a fixed share of their gross national income (GNI) to humanitarian aid, say MEPs.
The report calls on the Commission to provide a robust annual budget for EU humanitarian aid to ensure timely, predictable and flexible funding for humanitarian aid at the beginning of each financial year, both for protracted crises and for the response to new crises.
MEPs also advocate making climate change and environmental crises a central element of the EU’s future humanitarian action strategy. They stress the importance of supporting vulnerable populations to increase their resilience.
The report further recommends that the Commission assess the role of gender issues in humanitarian crises, which most often disproportionately affect women.
Before the vote, Norbert Neuser, who argued for a text that would serve as a strategic framework to combat structural problems, welcomed “a balanced report that focuses on the essentials”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)