Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-15-Speech-4-220"
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"en.20010215.10.4-220"2
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"Mr President, regarding, first of all, the European Parliament’s resolution on the earthquake in India, I want to point out – and a number of you have already made this point – that the Commission approved its emergency first aid to the value of EUR 3 million on 30 January, just four days after the events. This decision, like all emergency decisions, enabled operations to be funded from the first day of the emergency. Its objective was to provide immediate aid not only through the distribution of blankets, clothes, medicines and health care and the provision of food and drinking water, but also through the creation of a field hospital in Bhuj.
As Mr Mann has pointed out, this operation involved our collaborating with six humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam UK, Care International, the German Red Cross and Save the Children in the United Kingdom. Each of these organisations concerned itself with a specific area of activity and, in our opinion, the results have been positive.
The Commission has now announced its decision to provide a further EUR 10 million. We expect this decision to be finalised in the course of next week, as soon as the priorities have been established and assessments have been made of needs on the ground and of the NGOs’ proposals.
It is crucial to current, and any future, aid that we avoid duplication in the use of resources, as well as the problems which might be created by types of urgent need not covered by one or other financial aid provider. It is therefore vital to deal with all aid opportunities together and, in order to fill the gap between emergency and long-term aid, the Commission will lose no time at all in sending a study mission to assess reconstruction and renovation needs
. This mission will work in close conjunction with the Member States, and its results will enable us to decide better how to carry out future initiatives in cooperation with other international institutions as well.
Regarding the specific problem of floods and natural disasters in Portugal, I can tell you that Portugal has certainly suffered a very hard winter. There have undoubtedly been problems in many regions of Europe, involving heavy rain and storms, together with floods which have caused considerable material damage and, in certain cases, the loss of human life as well. On 16 November 2000, I myself appeared before this House to comment on the extremely serious floods in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, France and Italy, and I should like once again to express the Commission’s concern about these matters. We wish to be associated with the demonstrations of support and solidarity addressed by this House to the victims of this new disaster, specifically in Portugal.
As early as 31 January, my colleague Michel Barnier used the occasion of the part-session in Brussels to express his openness towards any request from the Portuguese authorities to re-adjust the programming of the Structural Funds. When we talk about re-adjusting the programming of the Structural Funds, we are not, as some of you may possibly have thought, talking about applying a different use to the same resources as previously existed for the country but, instead, of reconsidering the overall programming of the Funds.
I should also like to remind you that, on Wednesday, 25 October 2000 before this House, Mrs Wallström, speaking on behalf of the Commission, specified the latter’s role in the field of civil protection and explained the opportunities offered to us by the current Budget in terms of how the EAGGF and ERDF Structural Funds might be deployed, together with the Interreg 3 Community initiative which, in its inter-regional chapter, includes cooperation in the field of natural or industrial disasters. There is no other room for manoeuvre within the Budget.
Within the ‘Community Action Programme – Civil Protection’, the Commission is therefore prepared to consider a project to be submitted by the Member State affected, aimed at identifying the areas at risk from flooding in the European Union.
Finally, I should like once again to remind you of the Commission’s concern and of its willingness, within the framework of what is at present possible, to respond promptly and positively to the requests which Portugal might, under this general heading, submit as a consequence of these events."@en1
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