A4-0391/97

Resolution on Special Report 2/97 of the Court of Auditors concerning humanitarian aid from the European Union between 1992 and 1995 (C4-0219/97)

The European Parliament

- having regard to Special Report 2/97 of the Court of Auditors (C4- 0219/97) ((OJ C 143, 12.5.1997, p. 1.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 21 February 1997 on European Union humanitarian aid and the role of ECHO and on the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament on linking relief, rehabilitation and development ((OJ C 85, 17.3.1997, p. 181.)),

- 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 Articles 188c(4) and 206(1) of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A4-0391/97),

A. whereas the European Union and its Member States have in recent years contributed around half of the total humanitarian aid granted worldwide,

B. whereas the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) was faced immediately after its foundation in 1992 with major challenges, including the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, and was able, according to the findings of the Court of Auditors, to provide a considerable quantity of aid and achieve a significant amount with only limited resources,

C. whereas the Commission, according to the findings of the Court of Auditors, has now accumulated a wealth of experience which guarantees it a leading position among the international humanitarian aid organizations,

D. whereas this wealth of experience, according to the Court of Auditors, has hitherto hardly been exploited by the Member States; whereas the principles, set out in the EC Treaty, of complementarity and coordination between the Community's and the Member States' efforts have in practice remained almost a dead letter,

E. whereas, according to the Court of Auditors, this is partly because the Member States have hitherto made no effort to develop a global strategy in the field of EU humanitarian aid,

1. Regrets that, notwithstanding both the volume of assistance granted by the Community in the area of humanitarian aid and the significance of humanitarian aid as a component of the Community's external policy, the Treaty of Amsterdam contains no provisions relating to humanitarian aid;

2. Sincerely regrets the lack of operational coordination in the field between Union and Member State aid - despite the Commission's efforts - which testifies to an inadequate level of commitment in this area by the Member States' administrations;

3. Repeats its call for the advance coordination of European Union/Member State cooperation policies; considers that such a measure would both help to reduce the cost of operations and increase their efficiency;

4. Considers it essential for the Commission to make full use of its powers of initiative in coordinating humanitarian aid operations between the Community and the Member States;

5. Welcomes and supports the recommendation of the Court of Auditors that the priorities and principles of the European Union's policy should be enshrined in the form of a charter; firmly recommends, however, that such a charter should not be restricted to emergency humanitarian aid but should take account of the indissoluble link between emergency aid, rehabilitation and development;

6. Considers that such a charter could make a significant contribution to creating a more solid basis for enhanced coordination and cooperation between the Community and its Member States;

7. Calls on the Commission to submit to Parliament and the Council a draft for such a charter and to make suitable proposals as to how such a charter could be debated on as broad a basis as possible, particularly with the involvement of national parliaments;

8. Calls on the Commission to replace its aid policy, hitherto principally focussed on individual operations, with a more long-term, programme-oriented approach, paying particular attention to the following recommendations which emerge not only from the Court of Auditors Report but also from evaluations, carried out at the Commission's instructions, on earlier operations:

(a) ECHO should improve its capacity, both among its coordinators in the field and with its regular partner organizations, to make an accurate analysis and assessment of the aid operations it is most necessary and appropriate to carry out, having due regard to the circumstances prevailing locally;

(b) clearer criteria for the type of operation that should be funded by ECHO are necessary, and such criteria should be based on the realisation that emergency aid agencies are rarely appropriate for more complex rehabilitation projects;

(c) Commission departments should develop longer-term, more strategic relationships with key partners (e.g. larger NGOs and the UN) in order to work out and implement together a common overall programme strategy for chronic and complex emergencies (e.g. the African Great Lakes Region, the former Yugoslavia, the Caucasus, Northern Iraq);

(d) where a rapid response is necessary before an appropriate strategy has been worked out, it might be useful for tried and tested partners to be preselected and for a clear proposal of objectives and strategies to be demanded only some time after the signature of the initial contract;

9. Agrees with the Court of Auditors that assessing in any rigorous way the impact of humanitarian aid operations is extremely difficult and that the Commission must therefore take care to require partners to specify in their proposals which indicators will be used and monitored in assessing the impact of their proposed measures and projects;

10. Calls on the Commission, where it funds projects jointly with other donors, to define in collaboration with the Court of Auditors general procedures permitting the programme as a whole to be properly monitored and urges it to seek agreement with the other donors on suitable reporting and control procedures;

11. Calls on the Commission to reduce rapidly and permanently existing imbalances in the allocation of Community appropriations for humanitarian aid to NGOs;

12. Calls on the Commission to publish annually complete lists of the contracts concluded with NGOs for the implementation of humanitarian aid projects, showing the total amount of money involved in the contracts and the total amount made available from these contracts to each individual NGO;

13. Agrees with the Court of Auditors that the advisors deployed by ECHO to provide technical assistance on site have a key role to play and that the Commission should therefore increase still further the number and quality of these advisors and give them a clearly defined framework and greater responsibility for coordination and monitoring;

14. Calls on the Commission to make the appointment procedure for non- established staff at ECHO more transparent and to refrain from the practice noted by the Court of Auditors of selecting staff purely on a personal assessment and without any selection criteria or examinations to evaluate their qualification;

15. Notes the Commission's intention to establish - by means of an invitation to tender - a list of experts in technical aid to third countries in the context of the European Community's humanitarian or food aid; calls on the Commission to rely exclusively on this list for the recruitment of non-established staff;

16. Calls on the Commission to follow the recommendation of the Court of Auditors and create a central unit to assume responsibility within the Commission for evaluating its development and aid programmes including ECHO, MEDA, PHARE and TACIS, to ensure appropriate quality control and comparability of results of the evaluation studies carried out on the Commission's instructions, and to improve the exchange of experience within the Commission as well as with other development aid institutions;

17. Calls on the Commission, in its annual reports on humanitarian aid, to publish a complete list of each of the evaluations carried out by it or on its instructions;

18. Calls on the Commission to open a debate on the future role of ECHO, on the relations it intends to set up with all partners (from the UN to NGOs) and on the reorganization of European Union humanitarian aid that could well result; urges the Commission to associate Parliament closely with this debate;

19. Notes that ECHO is involved only to a limited extent in the recently launched internal reorganization of Commission departments responsible for external relations;

20. Points out that ECHO was expressly established by the Commission in 1991 for a limited seven-year period with the option of upgrading its status to that of external agency with a European dimension;

21. Expects that the Commission will consult Parliament and the Council in good time and in due form before reaching a decision on ECHO's future once this period is over;

22. Calls on the Commission to report to it within six months on the measures it has taken to follow up this resolution;

23. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the Court of Auditors.