Haiti quake sparks call for worldwide rapid response unit
19/01/2010 - 19:11:45MEPs joined Europe's new president Herman Van Rompuy today in calling for a stronger EU response to global disasters.
Mr Van Rompuy, speaking after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, suggested the setting up of a "rapid reaction force" to be ready to move at a moment's notice to help tackle future natural catastrophes such as the Haiti earthquake.
He said the EU should work out a "better instrument for reaction" - an apparent attack on yesterday's "emergency" European meeting on Haiti - six days after the crisis began.
The meeting was chaired by the new EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton, and more talks are expected next Monday.
But Ashton has come under fire from the centre-right leader in the European Parliament Joseph Daul for not visiting Haiti in person.
Instead Ashton flies to Washington tomorrow for talks on the relief effort.
At the same time, the EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Karel De Gucht will arrive in Haiti to see the situation on the ground.
With Mr Van Rompuy in London simultaneously proposing a future new EU strategy for natural disasters, the Haiti crisis is being seen as an early test of the EU's new multi-layered political hierarchy.
Mr Van Rompuy's job of EU "President of the Council" (of EU ministers) and Ashton's role as "High Representative for Foreign Affairs" have just been established under the Lisbon Treaty.
There is some doubt that the aim of improving clarity over who is in charge is being fulfilled, however.
"The idea was to answer the so-called Kissinger question - 'who do you call in Europe?' - but all we've done is add more phone numbers to the list," said one EU official.
Ashton acknowledged the point last week, observing: "In an international crisis a number of phone calls will be made. One of them will be to me."
Irish Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell said she should have been "more visible" in leading the EU's relief effort, and he called for a "standby force" to be set up in future.
"The High Representative should have been more visible in what is a truly awful catastrophe," he told a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
"There is a need for a rotating six-monthly stand-by force with a specific mandate to coordinate the EU's relief efforts."
"The USA is leading the relief efforts in this instance, but that role may fall to the EU for the next crisis, and the EU must be prepared to take on such a role" Mr Mitchell added.
Support for Cathy Ashton came from Labour MEPs, with Labour leader in the European Parliament Glenis Willmott welcoming her work coordinating the relief effort so far, including funds totalling more than 370 million pounds.
"It's so important to have someone who can co-ordinate the EU response to a crisis such as this. Cathy Ashton is doing an excellent job," she argued.
West Midlands Labour MEP Michael Cashman commented: "Whatever saves lives should be our policy. We need to coordinate and work all together, while forgetting the political rhetoric.
"Congratulations to Cathy Ashton on not playing to a theatrical audience and arriving in a plane with TV cameras. She is getting on with delivering Aid, not photo opportunities", he said.
Former Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, now an MEP, voiced doubts about setting up a permanent EU crisis force:
"We don't want the actors stepping on each other's toes, and all the world's well-intentioned volunteers crowding the disaster scene," he said.
Ashton seemed to agree this afternoon, telling MEPs who criticised her for not going to Haiti: "I had nothing to contribute on the ground other than taking up valuable space when planes were unable to land because of the state of the airfield.
"I am not a doctor, nor a firefighter. My place was to bring together co-ordination at EU level and with the United Nations."
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