Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-19-Speech-2-009"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20100119.4.2-009"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
". – Mr President, thank you very much indeed for your kind words. Honourable Members, I asked for this debate to be able to update this House on the situation in Haiti following the terrible earthquake of 12 January. The losses are devastating and the damage is enormous. Up to three million people have been affected by the tragedy, and the death toll continues to mount.
In total, this is a big response in a short time. Assistance will be targeted, too, to the Dominican Republic. Finding enough money is going to be less of a problem at the moment than getting it out to the people who need it. We must ensure that it is properly targeted towards sustainable political and physical reconstruction. Following the UN Secretary-General’s request for help with transport of humanitarian aid and for additional police units, the Council invited me to identify EU Member State contributions and make proposals for this mobilisation. I am working on this.
We convened a Political and Security Committee meeting immediately after the Council meeting to follow up. Early indications of Member State contributions are already now available, including possible contributions through the European Gendarmerie Force. Work will continue in the Council preparatory groups during the coming days with a view to a rapid, targeted response.
The Foreign Affairs Council will meet again next Monday. We will follow up on Haiti and consider further actions.
This is a major test of EU foreign policy in the new world of the Lisbon Treaty. The people of Haiti – and our own people – expect a swift, effective and coordinated response. This is what we believe we are delivering.
I look forward to working with Parliament on this and am pleased to be here today to give you this information and to hear your views.
This is a massive humanitarian and political disaster. Our immediate focus is on working with the United Nations and the Haitian leadership to ease the suffering of the Haitian people. Our commitment to rebuilding Haiti is long term. Many European citizens have also lost their lives, and around 1 000 are still unaccounted for.
The EU has responded quickly, not seeking headlines but with a total focus on getting help to the people in need. On advice from the United Nations, we resisted the urge to travel to Haiti immediately. That would only have diverted attention and scarce resources away from the relief effort. We will, of course, travel to Haiti as soon as it is appropriate, and I have agreed with Commissioner De Gucht that he will travel to Haiti this week to extend the EU’s condolences and underline our commitment to the people. He will also take the opportunity to review our aid efforts so far and discuss with the United Nations and our people on the ground the most pressing needs for the weeks and months to come.
In the meantime, we continue to work flat out on all tracks: humanitarian, political and security. Over the past days, I have been in constant contact with Secretary of State Clinton, with the United Nations leadership, with EU Foreign Ministers and with Canada, which is leading the ‘Friends of Haiti’ group: all this with a view to ensuring an effective and coordinated international response. I will travel to the United States this week to follow up on this and other issues with the United States Administration, and with the UN Secretary-General and others in New York.
The UN has asked for urgent financial aid – USD 575 million – as well as logistical assistance to transport humanitarian aid. Yesterday, the United Nations Secretary-General asked for police and military reinforcements of the UN peacekeeping mission as well.
To help mobilise and coordinate our response, I asked the Spanish EU Presidency to call an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council yesterday. For the first time since the Lisbon Treaty entered into effect, we are now pulling together the efforts of the Commission and the Council Secretariat, and the Member States, in a comprehensive approach, under my overall coordination. This is ground breaking.
We had a productive Council meeting yesterday. Everyone agreed on the need for a rapid response and close coordination with the United Nations. In terms of financial assistance, the Council reached the following conclusions. It welcomed the Commission’s preliminary commitment for immediate humanitarian assistance of EUR 30 million, in addition to EUR 92 million in preliminary commitments by Member States.
It welcomed the Commission’s preliminary commitment of EUR 100 million for early non-humanitarian assistance, for instance, in rehabilitation and reconstruction, and it took note of the Commission’s preliminary indication that EUR 200 million would be available for longer-term responses.
It called for, in due course and after post-emergency needs have been fully assessed, an international conference on Haiti."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission"1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples