A4-0021/97

Resolution on European Union humanitarian aid and the role of ECHO and on the Commission communication to the Council and European Parliament on linking relief, rehabilitation and development (COM(96)0153 - C4-0265/96)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission communication (COM(96)0153 - C4-0265/96),

- having regard to its resolution of 19 November 1993 on the Commission report on the implementation in the Member States of the Council Recommendation of 13 June 1985 on social protection for volunteer development workers ((OJ C 329, 6.12.1993, p. 381.)),

- having regard to its recommendation to the Council of 19 January 1996 on humanitarian action by the European Union ((OJ C 32, 5.2.1996, p. 145.)),

- having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/96 of 20 June 1996 on humanitarian aid ((OJ L 163, 2.7.1996, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Council's conclusions of 22 November 1996 on equal treatment for men and women in crisis prevention, emergency intervention and reconstruction,

- having regard to Rule 148 of the Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy and Committee on External Economic Relations (A4-0021/97),

A. whereas close coordination between the Member States and the Commission is essential for effective humanitarian aid by the Community,

B. whereas, in pursuit of the same objective, the internal structure of the Commission must be adapted to provide a global coherent Community humanitarian aid strategy,

C. whereas the Community, to the same end, should also coordinate its action with that of non-member countries and international agencies and organizations specializing in humanitarian aid, and work closely with non- governmental organizations,

D. whereas the continued high demand for humanitarian aid must not lead to a decrease in the funds available for development programmes and preventive measures since poverty and conflict are at the root of human suffering in emergencies,

E. having regard to the figures given in the Commission communication, according to which between 1988 and 1993 'relief expenditure by OECD member states rose from USD 500 m to USD 3500 m per year, at a time when overall aid programmes are tending to stagnate or even decline',

F. noting that these figures are regrettably in conflict with the Commission communication's objective to give priority to conflict prevention,

G. convinced that a new and sustained effort is needed to reach out to public opinion throughout Europe to promote the role of long-term development assistance; considers that this could be done by demonstrating the causal link between poverty and humanitarian crises,

H. whereas the creation of a European voluntary service at Community level could become a valuable resource in the Community's work in development and humanitarian aid,

I. whereas the majority of all refugees are women,

J. whereas the division between short, medium and long-term aid must ensure that a coherent approach to aid is devised and that the link between them receives ever greater attention,

K. convinced that there is no better long-term way of remedying human suffering than conflict prevention and that, as soon as the situation in a country requires it, preventive measures (such as diplomatic, economic or media measures) should be activated,

1. Regards it as essential that the Commission makes full use of its power of initiative to coordinate humanitarian aid actions of the Community and the Member States; in this context calls on the Council to adopt the measures needed to ensure that Member States cooperate unreservedly with the Commission; sincerely hopes that the Intergovernmental Conference will lead to a strengthening of the Union's common foreign policy;

2. Proposes, in the interests of greater efficiency and more coherence between development policy, rehabilitation and humanitarian aid, that responsibilities and measures should be clearly defined, and even in certain cases reclassified; hopes that the necessary structural reorganization of the various fields of activity will make an important contribution to greater transparency and information, both within the Commission itself and vis-à-vis other partners, including the European Parliament; believes that the Commission's external services as a whole should be brought under the competence of a single Commissioner;

3. Calls on the Commission to decide on the means and reinforcement of communication and information with the United Nations agencies and the other major international organizations, in the interests of efficiency;

4. Welcomes the formulation of eligibility criteria for NGOs and the revision of the framework partnership agreements which will allow ECHO and its partners to enhance the quality of their cooperation;

5. Considers that the Commission's external delegations have a necessary role to play, especially in the event of a major crisis; regrets, in this context, the shortage of staff made available at times of crisis; considers that the Commission's external delegations should play a greater role in coordinating humanitarian actions in their respective countries;

6. Recommends that in the event of conflict or crisis the financial and human resources of the delegations should be reinforced; also hopes that such exceptional provisions would be maintained until it is ascertained that the situation has improved;

7. Calls on ECHO to disseminate the results of evaluations and to strengthen the feedback of information from the countries where Community aid measures are being carried out;

8. Calls on ECHO to look into the problem of too frequent shifting of staff which could hinder a sufficient building-up of experience with a particular country or crisis; calls on ECHO, in its policy of recruiting staff for specific missions, to take into account the experience acquired by candidates in humanitarian aid measures on the ground;

9. Calls on the Council and Commission to give priority to measures enabling the Community's activities in the field of long-term development assistance to be made more visible; believes that this must be done as part of a strategy which demonstrates the causal link between poverty and humanitarian crises; stresses that the efficiency of aid measures should not fall victim to the visibility of EU aid which has been the centre of attention for some time;

10. Calls on the Commission, in its preliminary draft budget for 1998, to allocate sufficient financial resources to ECHO, under the relevant budget headings, in order to put an end to the practice of setting up a reserve, which hinders its operation and delays its intervention;

11. Reiterates its belief that in the framework of a common defence policy the possibility of establishing a European civil peace corps should be taken into account in order to strengthen humanitarian action, lead to the peaceful settlement of conflicts, prevent the outbreak of new conflicts and provide the necessary measures of confidence-building;

12. Calls on the Council and the Commission to consider the possibility of setting up a European corps consisting of civilian and military units, in cooperation with the WEU, responsible for keeping and re-establishing peace (Petersberg missions);

13. Welcomes the Commission's communication; believes that it is an important first step in improving the coherence of short, medium and long-term Community aid;

14. Believes that the Commission's emphasis on country-specific impact analyses before relief actions are initiated needs to be complemented with very careful monitoring and follow-up on how humanitarian action affects longer term aims;

15. Recognizes that a gender approach to humanitarian aid would help reconcile the conflicting requirements of trying to link relief, rehabilitation and development; calls on the Commission to make provision for a thorough gender-based analysis, at all stages of emergency aid, rehabilitation and development and to provide financial support for local initiatives undertaken in situations of crisis, particularly those initiated by women;

16. Calls on the Council, the Commission and the Member States in the implementation of relief, rehabilitation and development, to take into account the specific situation of women in emergency and crisis situations, their special role in the reconstruction process and in the social stabilization of society and to develop and implement corresponding autonomous projects or project elements, taking account of the Council's conclusions of 22 December 1996 referred to above;

17. Recognizes that the vast majority of the recipients of humanitarian aid are women and children and that therefore their needs, particularly their health needs, should be addressed;

18. Stresses that the difficulty, so far, of incorporating development aspects into relief operations is partly due to the fact that humanitarian agencies have separated the two; believes that, in the short term, coordination between Commission departments must continue to be strengthened and that the proposal to establish coordinating groups of desk-officers should be implemented without delay; believes that, in the long term, the Commission should reorganize its management structure in order to allow for a more global, coherent and integrated strategy in the complementary fields of humanitarian aid and development aid;

19. Points out that crises of a chronic nature are more and more frequent and, in this context, rehabilitation efforts are not short term, designed to facilitate the passage from emergency aid to development, but rather aim to manage prolonged situations of instability; believes that greater financial means must be made available for rehabilitation programmes;

20. Calls on the Commission to ensure that its relief and rehabilitation interventions support the functioning of local, national and regional markets by giving priority to local, national and regional sourcing possibilities;

21. Believes that more emphasis needs to be placed on local people's skills and capacities in order for development programmes to take better account of the risk of emergencies, and by analogy, for relief actions to take better account of development aspects;

22. Calls on the Council and Commission to support local efforts to promote disaster preparedness;

23. Stresses that in the design of macro-economic reform programmes full account should be taken of the vulnerability of countries to natural disasters;

24. Considers it essential for the Commission to define clearly under what circumstances and at which point conditionality becomes an integral part of the relief-rehabilitation-development process and to draw up at the same time a timetable for the progress to be made;

25. Is dismayed at the lack of progress made by the Council in implementing conflict prevention measures repeatedly requested by the European Parliament;

26. Considers that greater attention needs to be paid to the role of local civil society in the area of conflict prevention; is convinced that measures to promote democracy, aimed at achieving fuller social participation and integration of local populations are needed in the context of a conflict prevention policy; in this connection also considers that prevention policy for both natural disasters and armed conflicts must allocate an important role to development and the integration and social participation of women;

27. Believes that humanitarian aid should be non-discriminatory towards victims and non-political; believes, however, that it is inevitable that humanitarian aid in sensitive areas may have political consequences; believes that the Commission, and ECHO in particular, should carefully evaluate these and, as far as possible, make sure that they reinforce its work in the field of conflict preparedness;

28. Calls for a reform of the CFSP with a view to making it more coherent by enabling the Union to combine diplomatic efforts and (military and civilian) humanitarian intervention capacity with trade and development aid policies;

29. Calls for European monitoring of arms exports and a tightening up and clarification of the criteria adopted at the European Council meetings of June 1991 and June 1992, with a view to preventing exports of arms to areas of conflict;

30. Considers it essential that the Community institutions should devote particular attention to conflict prevention and 'early warning' and stresses, in this connection, that a European research centre should be set up for the active prevention of crises;

31. Calls on the Council to advocate, in the United Nations, the setting up of a permanent international criminal court as an important instrument of conflict prevention;

32. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.