Meeting on Tuesday 14 April, the European Parliament’s Development Committee (DEVE) held an exchange of views on the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, which has been plunged into chaos for several weeks as a result of the military escalation in the region. On the ground, the NGOs are clear: humanitarian needs are exploding while resources are dwindling.
Cecilia Strada (S&D, Italian), Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries, opened the debate by pointing out that over a million people, including 400,000 children, had already been displaced since the start of the conflict. “International humanitarian law is clear: civilians must be protected at all times. However, we already have more than 1,000 civilian victims”, she lamented.
The crisis in the Middle East is also a “global food security shock”, warned Samer Abdel Jaber, head of the World Food Programme (WFP). He highlighted the rampant inflation in Lebanon, with the price of bread having risen by 17% in one month.
Yet the obstacles to material aid are multiplying. Mr Abdel Jaber revealed that “almost 63%” of convoys to southern Lebanon have not been able to reach their destination due to a lack of security guarantees, blocked by negative or absent responses to requests for ‘de-confliction’ (a procedure designed to guarantee that a convoy will not be targeted by strikes). On this point, the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Barry Andrews (Renew Europe, Irish), pointed out that the Israeli Defence Forces require 48 hours’ notice for any humanitarian movement, making it de facto impossible to carry out any emergency intervention, such as ambulance transport.
For his part, Mohammed Mansour, coordinator of the Lebanese Forum of Humanitarian and Development NGOs, stressed the heavy price paid by rescue workers: to date, 88 paramedics have been killed by Israeli strikes. “Lebanon does not ask for sympathy. Lebanon asks for decisive action”, he said, urging the EU to step up its efforts to bring about an immediate ceasefire.
MEPs fear a new Palestinian scenario. On the MEPs’ side, the feeling of tragic déjà vu dominated the debates. For many elected representatives, the methods used in southern Lebanon are simply an extension of a strategy that has already been tried and tested in the Palestinian enclave. Isabel Serra Sánchez (The Left, Spanish) criticised the application of a “Gaza doctrine”: “The aim is to destroy the infrastructure that enables the Lebanese people to live”, she said. This analysis was shared by Leire Pajín (S&D, Spanish), who expressed her indignation at the systematic repetition of the same violations of international law. Both are now calling for coercive measures, such as the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (see EUROPE 13840/16).
Looking beyond the military situation, Udo Bullmann (S&D, German) felt that the EU’s diplomatic response was too passive, denouncing a “no-show” performance of the European institutions. He believes that European aid will remain insufficient as long as “the bombing continues”, and the lack of political firmness is “one of the very reasons why this situation is happening”.
A global humanitarian system under strain. The Lebanese crisis is part of an increasingly sombre global landscape (see EUROPE 13830/19). During a previous debate in the DEVE Committee the same morning, Maria Groenewald, Director of the European NGO network VOICE, pointed out that records in terms of humanitarian needs are broken every year. According to her, “fragility is no longer the exception. It is increasingly the norm”, which calls for more robust humanitarian diplomacy to break the cycle of suffering.
She called for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to maintain a budget of €25 billion for humanitarian aid, while warning against instrumentalisation of this aid to serve interests linked to “migration, security or (...) foreign policy”. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)