Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-20-Speech-2-101"
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"en.20100420.5.2-101"2
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"Mr President, I would like to express to all the honourable Members in this Chamber great appreciation for the attention this Parliament continues to pay to Haiti.
Before passing the floor to Andris Piebalgs, who will inform you about the reconstruction and development of Haiti, let me outline the four main humanitarian challenges for the months to come and how the European Commission is addressing them.
The first is the continuation of humanitarian assistance and, in particular, shelter, sanitation and health services. The relocation of the 1.3 million homeless in Port-au-Prince in temporary housing is a very complex undertaking because of practical issues such as land ownership, rubble removal, urban planning and security. Today, the priority concern are some 10 000 to 30 000 people living in makeshift camps in flood-prone areas. With the approach of the hurricane season, they have to be urgently relocated. This is a priority in our programme, as is strengthening camp management skills. We are paying very close attention to the pre-positioning of relief stocks. Most of them were completely depleted after the earthquake. We are now replenishing them and building the capacity of the Haitian civil protection service, which has actually become stronger as a result of the crisis, so that they can make use of them.
Secondly, we have adopted a ‘follow the needs’ approach and are providing assistance where people are, in order to prevent further mass movements. We have made sure that our help reaches the whole of the country and not just Port-au-Prince. In this way, we have contributed to reducing the pressures in the capital. Following the same logic, we are also applying a ‘whole-of-island’ approach, whether it relates to the issue of Haitian refugees or to the logistics of the delivery of aid, or pre-positioning of relief stocks for the hurricane season. The Dominican Republic matters also and is not forgotten in our recovery programme.
Thirdly, we are making sure that donor coordination results in building on each other’s comparative advantage. With many actors in Haiti, this is no trivial challenge, but we have consistently been a very strong voice for UN-led humanitarian coordination. When I was in Haiti, my impression was that we have actually done quite well – in terms both of the civil protection teams from individual countries and in our own work.
Fourthly, we must ensure the transition from humanitarian relief to recovery and reconstruction. We are working very closely with Andris Piebalgs to facilitate this transition whenever possible. I will give you two specific examples. Firstly, in the food sector, we are encouraging local purchasing of food. We are asking our partners – even if it is a bit more expensive – to reach out to local farmers to create demand and help them to recover. That, of course, leads to work on reconstruction. Secondly, we are also supporting cash-for-work programmes so, again, we can build a transition from relief to recovery.
Last but not least, we are very focused on results. Europe is number one in terms of volume of aid and it has to be number one in terms of results."@en1
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