Humanitarian Aid
The EU collectively is the biggest donor of official humanitarian aid, contributing more than 2 billion euros of aid for humanitarian response, that is over 40% of officially-reported overall international humanitarian assistance. The EU’s contribution is composed of European Union humanitarian aid and considerable levels of bilateral humanitarian aid directly by EU Member States, with shared competence. The European Union humanitarian aid is managed by the Commission's DG ECHO and its 2009 budget amounts to 777 million euros, 230 million of which are for emergency food aid.
The first mission of the humanitarian aid remains coping with man-made emergencies, notably complex internal conflicts and forgotten crises, aiming at preserving life and alleviating suffering. Nonetheless, natural disasters are of particular concern. The continuing effect of climate change results in a clear increase in the number of natural disasters; their impact on human lives compelled the Council to promoting Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and disaster preparedness in developing countries.
The EU has given itself a common set of values, principles and objectives through the 2007 European Consensus on humanitarian aid. It sets out a number of commitments that applies to a large extent both to Member States and the European Union, while some are specific to the European Union. Many of these commitments do not need any new framework in order to be implemented. For those which do require further action, the Council adopted in July 2008 an Action Plan to implement the European Consensus, with due consideration of the respective roles and competences of all the actors involved in the provision of EU humanitarian aid.
The European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid states that the EU will focus on enhancing policy-level exchange on aid and intervention strategies, including in an appropriate forum for regular policy debate in the Council. In May last year the decision was taken to extend the mandate of the existing Working Party on Food Aid to become the Working Party on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA). Hence, since 1 January 2009 the Council has a dedicated forum for regular policy debate on humanitarian aid, the COHAFA Working Party.
The humanitarian response to the earthquake in Haiti was a test for the EU humanitarian aid policy after the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty. On 18 January 2010, an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council was convened - the first chaired by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton - to coordinate the EU response to the earthquake in Haiti.
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