In her written answers to MEPs’ questions, published on Wednesday 23 October, Hadja Lahbib, the candidate nominated for the post of European Commissioner for Preparation, Crisis Management and Equality, stated that she wanted to help build a Europe capable of responding to crises and combating inequalities.
The former Belgian journalist and Foreign Minister also pledged to maintain a close dialogue with the European Parliament.
Strengthening civil protection and crisis preparedness. The Commissioner-designate would like to strengthen the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) as the “EU’s crisis coordination hub” for dealing with simultaneous and complex crises such as “Covid-19, the war in Ukraine” or natural disasters exacerbated by climate change.
She is committed to maintaining and developing the capabilities of RescEU, Europe’s “first strategic stockpile of civil protection capabilities”, to respond to a wider range of scenarios, including forest fires, medical evacuations and hybrid threats.
She also proposed examining the creation of a Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), which would “close an important existing gap when it comes to citizens’ and community engagement” and promote greater cooperation between Member States in the field of civil protection.
This initiative would be closely linked to existing structures such as the UCPM and the ERCC in order to avoid fragmentation of crisis management systems.
Humanitarian aid. Faced with increasing needs, Ms Lahbib stressed the need for a collective effort to broaden the humanitarian donor base, including both EU Member States and the private sector. “Beyond public donorship, I will work on bringing the private sector to the table more effectively. The ambition is not only to explore how they could complement humanitarian funding, but also to enhance the reputation of EU businesses as champions of corporate social responsibility”, she wrote.
“I will also encourage Member States to respect the voluntary target to dedicate 0.07% of Gross National Income (i.e. 10% of the Official Development Assistance) to humanitarian aid. The level of contributions varies widely, de facto weakening Europe’s humanitarian impact as well as its advocacy for increased contributions from third countries”, she argued.
The Commissioner-designate advocates a more strategic approach to humanitarian supply chains to optimise costs, reduce delivery times and increase efficiency, while ensuring that EU funds are used solely for humanitarian purposes, in accordance with rigorous principles of impartiality and transparency.
Fighting inequalities. Ms Lahbib also undertook to relaunch discussions on the ‘equal treatment’ directive (see EUROPE 13436/24), which has been blocked for several years, and to “ensure that the negotiations on this comprehensive proposal remain a priority for the coming mandate”. She considers it essential that the impact of EU rules be felt by citizens, with effective implementation of existing directives.
As far as combating violence against women is concerned, she pointed out that the directive adopted in 2023 on combating domestic violence (see EUROPE 13406/23) is a major step forward. Ms Lahbib pledged to work towards the “full implementation” of this directive in all Member States by 2027, and also called for cooperation with online platforms to combat cyber-violence.
She added that the criminalisation of “non-consensual sharing of intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes”, included in the directive, represents a decisive step in this fight.
Public health. In the field of public health, Ms Lahbib called for a strategy of medical countermeasures to strengthen Europe’s autonomy in the production of vaccines, medicines and medical devices.
She said that “a lack of reserve manufacturing and supply capacities” had led to shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it was imperative that the EU “should continue to invest in being more autonomous”. She is therefore proposing a “Critical Medicines Act” to reduce external dependency and guarantee the supply of essential products in the event of a crisis.
Ms Lahbib also undertook to develop a European strategy for building up medical stocks by working closely with the Member States to avoid “uncoordinated solutions on strategic inventories”, in order to reduce the risk of shortages both within the EU and in third countries, particularly those in the Global South.
To see the answers, go to https://aeur.eu/f/e0i (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry and Bernard Denuit)