Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-17-Speech-4-189"
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"en.20051117.21.4-189"2
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".
Mr President, the Commission has made a rapid and generous response to help the victims of this terrible disaster. Indeed, within hours of this devastating earthquake the first funding was made available, and field teams were despatched. EUR 13.6 million had been allocated within a few days. The first tranche was made available within a few hours of the disaster.
As the Commission humanitarian funds for 2005 were depleted, the Commission, through the ECHO and Relex departments, requested EUR 30 million from the reserve of the Commission budget for humanitarian aid, and EUR 10 million for reconstruction. We very much appreciate Parliament’s cooperation in releasing these additional funds. As a result, the Commission has been able to provide an overall financial package, as already mentioned, of EUR 93.6 million in response to the crisis, of which EUR 43.6 million will go to humanitarian relief, and EUR 50 million to rehabilitation.
The funding to date is mainly for shelter, health – including the Red Cross field hospital at Muzaffarabad – water and sanitation, coordination, and logistics, including 11 helicopters, as was mentioned earlier today.
Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner is today leaving for Pakistan where over the next two days she will take part in the Reconstruction Conference, along with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other major international donors.
I shall share with you some of our main concerns today. The Commission is fully aware that the location and scale of this disaster makes it very difficult for all humanitarian organisations to deploy rapidly and deliver aid to the victims. An additional constraint on meeting needs and allocating the funds available has been the implementing capacity of the aid agencies. There must be a rapid improvement, especially in reaching out beyond the main hubs.
I fully agree with you that coordination is very important. Part of the role of the rapidly deployed ECHO field teams is to ensure or has been to ensure coordination. In addition, ECHO is also allocating funds to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for their coordination role, including civil and military coordination of the use of military logistic support.
Concerning the issue of special trade measures, which was raised by one of the honourable Members of this House, we are determined to take Pakistan’s trade interests into account within the confines of our international obligations. Pakistan will benefit from the new GSP from January 2006. For the first time in 10 years, all Pakistan’s exports will be covered. This means that Pakistan is getting identical treatment to the tsunami-affected countries.
We in the Commission are very concerned at the prospect of a secondary humanitarian disaster as winter approaches. That is your concern as well, as thousands of injured people remain stranded in isolated mountain areas without food, shelter or sanitation. A sustained wide-scale relief action throughout the winter period is therefore to be expected. It is a must for all of us.
In view of this, let me inform you that the Commission, through the ECHO DG, has just received a further EUR 30 million from the emergency reserve. I want to thank you for your support in these joint efforts to help those who are in need."@en1
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