Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-19-Speech-2-010"
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"en.20100119.4.2-010"2
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"Mr President, let me start by underlining the unprecedented nature of this disaster – in terms of humanitarian impact, but also in terms of the impact on the country as a whole.
We must immediately set up massive, coordinated medium- and long-term common EU response plans for the crisis. Our services are working on this. This should be designed to ensure a proper division of labour among EU institutions and Member States and to ensure a linked relief rehabilitation and development approach, with a sustained and seamless transition between immediate relief and post-emergency response.
We have been calling on all the Member States to fully engage in these efforts, and to turn into actions all our commitments for coordination and aid effectiveness. This is a time when the strength of our commitments will be tested and must come out strong if we are to succeed.
Lastly, the financial response. As the High Representative has already outlined, the European Commission will make a major contribution, first of all in terms of humanitarian aid – EUR 30 million, of which the largest part – EUR 22 million to be exact – is completely fresh money that comes on top of the already existing humanitarian engagements we have with Haiti. The early recovery assistance – which is not humanitarian assistance, and what I just said about the state institutions of course comes under this umbrella – amounting to EUR 100 million, with a 50-50 balance between money redirected and fresh money, and then the longer-term reconstruction assistance, where there is now an initial amount of EUR 200 million.
Then we will have to see where we stand. Now one is hearing figures in the region of USD 10 billion. That seems a lot to me and, in any case, cannot be matched by the Commission budget. We will have to see with the Pledging conference and with the Member States how exactly we are going to eventually participate in higher sums. That is the EU-wide package that has now been prepared on top of all the contributions that are already being made and will be made by the Member States.
As the High Representative said, I will be going to the region – Haiti and also the Dominican Republic – tomorrow morning to have discussions with the authorities, including on the efforts to try to rebuild the state institutions. The President and major NGOs are on the spot. I will also go to the Dominican Republic. It is important that we also see those authorities, because they are the neighbours. You can already see that the situation might eventually create some overstretching at the border, so I will also see the Dominican authorities.
That is all I have to say at the moment. On my return, I will report back to the Development Committee, on the Monday afternoon.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is a country in a chronically fragile situation whose existing basic functions and capacities have been very seriously disrupted. Also, the international community has been hard hit. Staff of the United Nations and NGOs and our own Commission staff are still missing, and this also explains the difficulties of organising aid on the spot. People have to understand that it is not out of a lack of competence, but because the aid community has itself been hit. Relief operations are not flowing as speedily as one would wish, although one sees that this is getting better by the hour.
In other words, this is not only about saving human lives. We have, in fact, to save the country as a whole. That is why the High Representative, Cathy Ashton, called for this extraordinary Council meeting, which was a very useful tool in addressing the problem. Let me just very briefly focus on four main challenges.
First, we have, of course, to address humanitarian needs. These are enormous and concern chiefly emergency medical care for the injured, water and sanitation – because there is risk of cholera, for example – food and shelter. What is lacking most is surgery, primary health care and drugs, water treatment kits, food assistance, emergency shelter and logistics support. What is in enough supply is search-and-rescue capacity.
The organisational coordinating effort’s priorities are to complete the needs assessment, to have a better picture of the detailed needs and to organise the transport logistics. That will also be addressed within the framework of the EU institutions.
Lastly, we have to organise the coordination of international relief efforts. That is always very difficult in these kinds of circumstances. Let me stress that, only hours after the earthquake, European ECHO and MIC teams were deployed on the spot. They have been working there ever since to contribute to needs assessment and aid coordination. We are working with teams from OCHA, a United Nations organisation, and are in constant contact with John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The second point is to build, or rebuild, the basic state capacity. This is very important. This country has to function again, not only physically – most of the buildings have disappeared – but with a lot of high officials having gone missing and state structures having been severely disrupted.
The Council welcomes the fact that we will urgently send a team of EU experts with the specific task of assessing the most critical needs of the Haitian state and civil administration in order to provide technical assistance. Our diplomatic and cooperation staff on the ground are, of course, best placed to do that, but their capacity is overstretched. This is something that will become more and more important in the coming days. As the European Union and the European Commission, together with the Council, we could play a leadership role in re-establishing state institutions physically, and also in terms of people.
Third is, of course, the plan to reconstruct the country, where we have to look beyond the immediate relief phase. In a few weeks, many emergency teams and means deployed at the present time will have left and there is a risk – very typical of this kind of disaster – of a second-wave disaster if we do not sustain our assistance and support."@en1
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