Brussels, 18/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The experts of Member States and the European Commission, meeting in Brussels on Thursday within the Committee on Humanitarian Aid, discussed the humanitarian situation of the Afghan population and exchanged information on intervention strategies and the funding of humanitarian operations for them.
Ms. Adinolfi, Director of Echo (the Community's Humanitarian Office) briefed Member States
on actions financed by Echo in 2001, before and after 11 September 2001. Funds allocated this year by the European Union for crisis management in Afghanistan amount to date to 316 million euro, 100 million of which managed directly by the Commission. Ms Quintrec, ECHO correspondent in Islamabad (Pakistan) felt that the coordination of operations between the Commission and its Member States, and with the UNHCR and the World Food Programme, was quite satisfactory. The two most striking facts to emerge from the discussion were: 1) the worst case scenario, that 1.5 million Afghan refugees might flood into bordering countries, has not yet come to pass. Estimates have been scaled back (to between 200,000 and 500,000 people, maybe more but certainly less than a million); and 2) the situation was hard to predict or define, but it was essential to remain flexible in order to cope with the worst, if necessary.
The meeting was convened by the Commission in order to meet the request by the EU's Foreign Ministers (at the General Affairs Council of 8 October) and their Co-operation and Development counterparts (at the Council of 10 October) that all available information about the Union's humanitarian activity be assembled as soon as psosbile, to be able to deal in the most appropriate way with the emergency situation arising from the US air strikes.