Luxembourg, 21/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - During their informal meeting in Luxembourg on Friday, the defence ministers of the EU said they were pleased with the “positive” role that was played by the military to support humanitarian organisations in the Asian regions hit by the tidal wave last December, the president of the Council, Luc Frieden, said. “When there is a natural disaster, the military have at their disposal means that are not available to the traditional humanitarian players - military vessels, hospitals, aircraft and helicopters, all the equipment that is necessary for saving lives”, Frieden explained that “many ministers” have said it will be necessary to strengthen European coordination of military means in natural disaster situations of this kind. Frieden recalled that, after the tsunami in Asia, representatives of the EU's military staff (not only in Bangkok but also in Thailand and Rome) “endeavoured to coordinate the use of military means”. He explained that, in this kind of disaster situation, defence ministers consider the EU must be able to act with its own military means to help the victims, but “obviously in respect of humanitarian aid”. “We did provide coordination this time and we shall do it better the next”, he promised.
Addressing the ministerial gathering, Javier Solana, EU specified that the action plan adopted by the Council on 7 January invited him to put proposals forward on strengthening the EU's rapid response capability in natural or any other kind of disasters. He placed special emphasis on the need for Member States to make their military means available in this kind of situation. His team is now finalising a report on the issue. Among the preliminary indications on the matter, Solana went on to explain that: - the point of departure is international recognition of the effectiveness of having military means to support other civil protection measures in an emergency situation; - military means are not and cannot be the only means mobilised in such situations; - coordination of aid is the responsibility of the country hit by the disaster, but when this is no longer sufficient, other international players and above all the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) must join in the effort; - Solana said he believed it was necessary to see whether specific coordination of the military contribution that EU Member States can provide in the event of disaster can improve the quality of response; - in order to encourage the development or identification of Member States' suitable military capabilities for assistance in the case of natural disasters, Solana suggests that procedures allowing for the deployment of these capabilities in the shortest possible time should be studied, when required for any intervention that is needed to prevent loss of human life; - ideally, these military capabilities should make up pre-identified modules composed by the contributions of several nations; - during a disaster, Member States could deploy their pre-identified capabilities either as exclusively national capabilities or within the framework of a more complex, EU coordinated operation; - the setting in place of a centre of operations generated by the civil-military cell within the EU's Military Staff (EUMS) could, where necessary, facilitate the coordination of such an operation and contribute to ensuring coordination with other means deployed by the EU or by third bodies; - and an in-depth study on these questions should be conducted by the EU planning cell once it is able to begin its work in April this year. In due course, exercises should be carried out to test how effective these systems are: - this work will be carried out in full cooperation with the European Commission and more especially with the mechanism for the coordination of civil protection interventions.