DEVELOPMENT: EU Strengthens Ties with Red Cross

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Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jun 13 2003 (IPS) - The humanitarian aid office of the European Union has decided to strengthen collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The move could lead to immediate expansion of aid programmes in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say.

Last week ECHO (European Union’s Humanitarian Aid office) made a grant of 11.7 million dollars for the protection of people affected by unexploded landmines and bombs in Afghanistan. Since March ECHO has additionally given the ICRC about 10 million dollars for water and sanitation projects in Afghanistan.

ECHO channelled 86 million dollars into Afghanistan last year, according to its annual report. Much of this money went to the ICRC and to other aid agencies to help build homes for families hit by the earthquake last year.

ECHO has so far secured 114 million dollars for humanitarian needs in Iraq, and is working there with non-governmental organisations and aid agencies including the ICRC. ECHO was set up in 1992 to finance aid operations, and now works with more than 200 humanitarian partners, including the ICRC.

The new agreement between the EU (European Union) and the ICRC does not spell out details of cooperation measures, but EU officials say ECHO has pledged to increase collaboration with the ICRC to deliver humanitarian aid to trouble hotspots.

Poul Nielson, the EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Assistance and Jakob Kellenberger, president of the ICRC, told a press conference in Brussels Thursday that ECHO and the ICRC must increase efforts for a coherent and united approach in aid delivery, in spite of proposals to change the way EU delivers humanitarian aid.

"Although we are facing difficulties in our work, the EU has a duty to ensure that humanitarian space is preserved," Nielson said.

The difficulties are anticipated from proposals being put forward by the Convention for the Future of Europe, a group of representatives from each of the EU’s 15 member states and 10 candidate countries chaired by former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing.

The members of the Convention want to suspend the council for development cooperation, and place aid decisions under the purview of a new Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

The plan envisages the appointment of a minister for foreign affairs who would also be in charge of EU development aid. The draft text of a treaty proposed by the Convention classifies development cooperation as an "instrument" of EU "external action".

Nielson and civil society groups fear that this could compromise the nature and amount of aid given by the EU. "The proposals go against the nature of humanitarian assistance," Nielson said at a meeting last month. "The principles of humanitarian law are at stake here and it could mean that the EU may intervene in some crises but not others, depending on political gains."

It was significant that ECHO and the ICRC got together to announce aid cooperation just as the final draft of the proposed new constitution was being given finishing touches. The draft will be submitted by d’Estaing to heads of governments of member states at a meeting of the European Council in Thessaloniki in Greece next week. Greece holds the current six-month rotating presidency of the EU.

Despite misgivings over some of the proposals, Nielson said he was grateful that the European Commission, the executive wing of the EU, had managed to secure a provision giving a legal base to humanitarian action under the humanitarian aid office. He said the European Commission and the United Nations would launch revised Oslo Guidelines June 26 on this basis. These guidelines set the terms of humanitarian cooperation between the EU and the UN.

Kellenberger, who is in Brussels to discuss the situation in Iraq and the Middle East with Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union, and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, stressed the ICRC’s concerns about the deteriorating situation in several countries.

He stressed the need for more aid to Africa. Thousands are still waiting as refugees in schools and churches in Liberian capital Monrovia following battles with rebels, he said. Kellenberger said he also plans to take up the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where clashes between the Hema and Lendu tribes have claimed about 50,000 lives over the last four years.

The EU announced last week that it will send about 1,500 troops to the north- eastern town of Bunia to maintain peace between the government and rebels. This will be the first EU military operation outside Europe.