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EU 'needs disaster-reaction corps'
THE European Union should create a special reaction corps to deal with disasters such as the Asian tsunami of 2004, when its crisis-management abilities were found lacking, an official report urged today. The report also called on the bloc to provide better help to its citizens caught up in such disasters, such as pooling national consular services vital to identifying and repatriating victims. "I hope it won't take another disaster or tsunami to get this implemented. It all depends on the political will," said former French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who was commissioned by the EU to produce the report. Mr Barnier said the corps should be drawn from existing crisis management personnel made available by member states. He did not say how large it should be, but in the past has spoken of a corps totalling 5000 experts, including firefighters, technicians and medics. The timetable set out by Mr Barnier proposed the launch of the corps by 2010, slower than sought by some EU officials. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said last year it would be good to have the unit set up by next year. Within weeks of the December 26, 2004 tsunami, which claimed over 200,000 lives, the EU and its member states pumped billions of euros of aid into the region, not counting donations from private citizens and debt-easing pacts with affected countries. But while a US aircraft carrier in the region rushed in to start distributing aid, the EU was seen as slow to offer help on the ground in the critical days after the wave. EU officials acknowledged problems in coordinating national offers of aid, while some EU countries did not have the consular presence necessary to help their own citizens. Mr Barnier's report also suggested the bloc create mobile teams of consular experts to be flown in to help in crises and joint EU funding to pay for the evacuation of victims. The proposal is the latest effort by the EU to plough ahead with integration despite the uncertain future of the EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters last year. That charter included a clause obliging EU states to come to each others' aid in natural disasters and would have created the new post of EU foreign minister intended to make member states work more closely together internationally. Posted by: tipper 2006-05-09 |
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