Strasbourg, 13/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday at the European Parliament the Luxembourg minister of foreign affairs, Jean Asselborn examined the Union's measures following the tidal wave in South Asia. Both immediate and long term measures, the Council affirmed its aim of providing a number of action tools: prevention strategy, improvement in civil protection instruments, strengthening of consular protection, implementation of voluntary European corps of humanitarian aid ("Red helmets"), debt relief.
The Union acted fast, confirmed the Commission president, José Manuel Barroso who said that aid should be more visible, including that used for reconstruction. Questions are still being asked as to how the money should be used: for "costs" or for funds already planned in other spending areas. The first option would naturally be preferable but it would be necessary to wait for months before being able to do this and reprogramming would be necessary. This does not mean that other projects would be cancelled or that the Commission is forgetting its priorities, which is clearly still development in Africa.
Mr Barroso highlighted the need of identifying real needs, involving the countries concerned and respecting their choices. At the end of the month the Commission will present proposals on "follow-up" of these initial decisions: Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner will outline the details to Parliament.
Sri Lanka born British Conservative, Nirj Deva also appealed for greater visibility of Union action and repeated that he did not want this aid to be "stolen". He called for better prevention and asked whether volcanic activity in the Canaries could provoke a tsunami in Europe and if it could, who would we be warned about it.
Martin Schulz, the German president of the Socialist group said that the disaster demonstrated the positive side of the "global village" we were now living in. He welcomed the people's solidarity with the people of Beslan, with the victims of terrorism and the raising of EUR 30,000 for the victims of the disaster in Asia. Graham Watson the British president of the ALDE group said that the was particularly concerned about the fate of the children who had lost their families. He made an appeal for these children to be given the possibility of being able to remain in the world they were familiar with and to prevent any uprooting from being added to the loss of their parents. Daniel Cohn-Bendit the German president of the Greens/EFA drove home the fact that action had to be reinforced by conflict prevention (in countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka, for example). Georgios Karateaferis (Independence and Democracy) asked whether the disaster had not been provoked by nuclear tests and hinted that if prevention did not progress then an apocalyptic scenario with tsunamis destroying the Alps occurring. Véronique Mathieu (UMP), vice president of the EU/ASEAN delegation, was afraid that promises of aid to Indonesia would simply be a redeployment of funding that should have gone to development. She recognised that Europe could not multiply aid but had to focus its efforts and optimise them. The president of the EU/Iran delegation, German Green, Angelika Beer, insisted that funding had to be directed efficiently: following the earthquake in December 2003, Iran had only received a small part of the money it had been promised.
Maria Martens (EPP/ED, Netherlands) warned against the danger of criminal groups and corrupt officials taking advantage of the chaos. Italian Green Sepp Kusstatscher drew attention to the dangers in the countries that had been hit of mass tourism that did not respect the environment: this was not the kind of tourism that Europe should be assisting.
Parliament wants solidarity with affected countries to be sustainable and not leave out disinherited areas of the world
On Thursday the European Parliament adopted a resolution from five groups (EPP-ED, PES, ALDE, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, UEN) calling for the aid promised by the EU to be put into action on a sustainable level and that it does not ignore the need to continue aid to other disinherited areas, notably Africa (the resolution pointed out that 1.2 billion people in the world live in poverty and almost a million suffered from malnutrition). The long resolution (35 points) that we publish in its entirety in EUROPE/Documents includes: an amendment (302 for, 267 against) by Glenys Kinnock, Ana Maria Gomes and Miguel Angel Martinez of the PES, calling on the EU to examine whether the Galileo system could immediately take part in an early warning system in the Indian Ocean but also for setting up an appropriate warning system for all ACP countries, those in the Mediterranean and on the EU coast; an amendment by Ms Gomes and Mr Martinez calling on the Council to develop the EU's "military means" for reacting to "humanitarian and natural" disasters in the future.
ASEAN country ambassadors affected attended a debate on Wednesday and then met EP vice president Alejo Vidal-Quadros (EPP, Spain). The latter indicated in the plenary that diplomats had thanked the EU for its swift and non-partisan aid.