Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-04-Speech-1-132"
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"en.20000904.9.1-132"2
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"Mr President, I should first like to salute Mr Imbeni, the author of this report, and express my appreciation of his work. It is an excellent report which both identifies the main points of criticism and describes ways to ensure that ECHO is able to work effectively in the future.
We have had this office for humanitarian aid in the EU since 1992, and both evaluation reports – which form the main basis of the assessment, together with the Commission's report – contain high praise for ECHO in respect of its work so far, while identifying several very serious weak points. Although the assessment of ECHO's work in terms of efficiency compared with costs, is very positive, there still remains the problem of the infamous ‘grey area’ in the time immediately following the events which trigger the provision of relief. Humanitarian operations in this ‘grey area’ cannot be assessed on the basis of precise criteria, nor do they provide the information and recommendations required for future ECHO operations in the area.
It is therefore necessary, in my opinion, to improve disaster preparedness and step up the provision of disaster relief as a priority. It should be noted here that the regional approach adopted by the existing DIPECHO instrument offers a possible solution. At the same time, however, the lack of sufficiently flexible alternative instruments within the Commission is to be lamented. The Commission needs to present a clear strategy for the role which the humanitarian aid provided by ECHO has to play as part of foreign and development policy.
ECHO does not have the necessary human resources to do the job of a planning headquarters. Staffing levels are below those characteristic of other Commission departments and well below those in national administrations, which are known to invest considerably less in crisis prevention. Here the appropriations, which currently stand at around EUR 7.5 million, therefore need to be at least – wait for it – quadrupled to allow the work to be done effectively.
It is particularly regrettable – and Mr Imbeni has already made this point as well – that when projects are developed and run through partners, around 56% of which are non-governmental organisations, they are not identified strongly enough in the public arena as European Union aid. I believe that there is a considerable need for action here in the future. The public has to be informed, but please not with the funds which are directly available to ECHO. We should continue to pursue the positive initiatives here and use alternative sources of funding to defray the costs of informing the public."@en1
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