Michel Barnier's proposal to create “EuropAid”, a European civil protection force, is generally welcomed
Press article, Agence Europe, 04.10.2006
(EU) EP/SECURITY/DEFENCE
Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - It was first and foremost in his capacity as the author of the report on the creation of a European civil protection force that Michel Barnier - former French Foreign Minister, former European Commissioner and former member of the Convention that drafted the EU's constitutional treaty - took the floor on 2 October at the European Parliament's sub-committee on security and defence. The debate focused on the aim and the missions of EuropAid - the name of a new idea put forward for improving European international crisis response in the event of natural disasters, large-scale attacks and pandemics. Michel Barnier's detailed presentation on early warning for disasters and his recommended pooling of existing national instruments were generally well received as were his answers to parliamentary questions. This is reassuring for someone who initiated a project that has been at a standstill since it was presented to the European Council in June this year at the request of the Council President at the time, Wolfgang Schüssel, and Commission President José Manuel Barroso (EUROPE 9188).
By way of introduction, Karl von Wogau (EPP-ED, Germany), chairing the EP's sub-committee on defence and security, gratefully recalled that Michel Barnier was the father of the solidarity clause and the Armaments Agency (proposals made under the defence chapter of the Convention), the Agency having seen light of day independently of the moribund draft Treaty. Echoing this, Michel Barnier stressed the points of convergence between the Karl von Wogau report on ESDP developments and his own report on the creation of a European civil protection force, namely: one and the same institutional approach, one and the same European solidarity approach with double anchoring in the mutual assistance clause, and the proposal for a tool to meet the challenge of effective EU action. “You suggest a common European defence market with deployment capacity of 60,000 troops in sixty days, and civil crisis management capacity of member States. I have suggested the acquisition in common of equipment and complementarity in military transport in the case of emergency (…). The need to face up to the tsunami in southern Asia left me bitter in my capacity as foreign minister, but it also taught me a lesson. Prevention costs less than repair. It is better to prepare the response rather than improvise. This is important when one speaks of a Europe of Projects”, Michel Barnier said.
Summarising the twelve measures of his proposal, Michel Barnier stressed the need to “organise a European reflex of solidarity”, a reflex that is “legitimate, and expected both within and outside the EU in an increasingly unstable, troubled and dangerous world landscape”. The World Bank figures, that he cited, prove this: natural disasters are not only increasingly frequent - having affected the lives and health of 2.6 billion men and women in the world over the past ten years (1984-2003), i.e. one billion more than over the previous decade - but they also cost more and more: $652 billion in the nineties, i.e. fifteen times more than in the fifties. Since 1999, no fewer than 37 disasters have taken place in the world, including 17 that directly affected European territory. To date, there are no pre-identified human and material means that can be mobilised as a European response. “We have had to wait three years to create the solidarity fund that today has one billion euros. Now all that has to be done is to pool the national civil protection forces”, Mr Barnier stressed. The idea is to create a “European pool” to meet urgent humanitarian needs respecting double subsidiarity towards the United Nations and EU Member States, and identifying the European means managed in and by Member States. Each of these States should identify human and material means that can be used in common, and placed voluntarily in common in accordance with pre-identified financial agreements. European financing (10% of the Solidarity Fund) would only be a last resort to fill any gaps or failings in military transport means.
“When a maritime disaster occurs, each Member State currently has ships able to pump oil at sea during storms. Is this not something that the EU could look at?”, Michel Barnier asked, stressing the interest that would, for example, lie in buying three ships in common to be positioned in different geographic areas. The same remark, he says, is valid for the purchase of heavy carrier aircraft for evacuating populations, or helicopters for use against fires.
As the operational centre, based in Brussels, which is the keystone of the outfit, has identified crisis categories (earthquake or tsunami, major fires of forest fire, floods, nuclear and industrial accidents, large-scale terrorist attacks, disasters at sea, pandemics), it is now working on reaction protocols- "technical and operational protocols to prepare for the European response". The coordination and mobilisation of resources is to be done from this centre, from Brussels. This will be added: - the creation of a training institute for those involved in civil protection and humanitarian aid, tasked with organising joint exercises and training, allowing them to "learn how to talk to each other" and guarantee " the interoperability of operations"; and a civil security Council (made up of the President of the Council of the EU, the High Representative for CFSP, the President of the Commission and the Chief of Staff). This Council will hold ad hoc meetings at which it will decide to pledge the action of the European civil protection force; the pooling of consular resources on the ground, the creation of a steering consular team, and the creation of European consulates at least between the countries of the Schengen zone.
"I will soon be holding a meeting with the Finnish Presidency. I hope that it will not take any more tsunamis for this force to come into being, as it will be a European project to respond to a genuine need in Europe and the world", Mr Barnier concluded.
Answering a question put by Mr Von Wogau, Mr Barnier stated that the operational centre will be the equivalent of a "reinforced MIC" (the Monitoring and Information Centre to coordinate civil protection actions, currently housed within DG Environment of the European Commission: Ed) with expertise in evaluation and preparation, and not just reaction, which will bring together "all of these experts, capable of working together, within one building in Brussels". Mr Kuhne (PES, Germany) asked whether the "Brussels team" would intervene irrespective of the scale of the disaster, to which Mr Barnier replied: "there is no question of substituting European action for national action. The first response will be national or regional. The European force will only get involved in supranational disasters". Replying to Tobias Pflüger (GUE/NGL, Germany), who opposed the military component of the resources to be mobilised and wanted to know more about collaboration with NATO, Mr Barnier pointed out that "in order to transport civil protection resources, we need military resources. We must create a European pool of high-capacity transport resources, under the colours of EuropAid. Cooperation with NATO relates to the use of transport resources".
Bronislaw Geremek (ALDE , Poland), who sees Mr Barnier's report as "one of the most interesting European documents after the draft constitution", said that he was "disappointed with the cold welcome he had received" from the Member States. What must be done to ensure that the draft is not buried? What could be the instrument which could help it move forward, as early as this year? Could the creation of a EuropAid forum open to civil society, which would meet annually to report back on the state of play, with the support of the Parliament, be this instrument? And what will be the first stage, he wondered. "The political support of the Parliament is a decisive factor", Michel Barnier replied. "And the first stage is the creation of the operational centre, by the European Commission, with the support of the Council. I presented my report to the European Council under the Austrian Presidency. The Finnish Presidency is taking over. I cannot implement it all on my own. I have proposed an implementation and scoreboard over five years. It could be that the signal to launch will be given tomorrow".
In answer to Mr Vytautas Landsbergis (EPP-ED, Lithuania), who "greatly appreciates the report as a framework highly adapted to crisis reaction", but criticises the shortcomings in the EU's management of the "Caucasian tsunami", where the "Russian peacekeeping forces in Georgia" should be replaced, Michel Barnier explained that the management of political crises was not in the mandate conferred upon him.
"This is an excellent job of work, but first things first. Without a new Constitution, what political recommendations will you be able to present to the Member States for developing joint rules, civil and military?", asked Jana Hybaskova (EPP-ED, Czech Republic). Mr Girts Valdis Kristovskis (UEN, Latvia) congratulated Mr Barnier for the extreme clarity of his report and the correctness of his preventive approach, but did raise questions about the costs of implementing a centralised European system.
Michel Barnier made a combined attack, declaring: "I know how complex the workings of the European institutions are, but the question is as follows: are we going to continue to respond to international disasters on a completely uncoordinated basis, sending aircraft apparently at random, as happened with the tsunami? The less efficient the response, the more expensive it is. Let us not forget the cost of non-Europe! Joint resources and teams will help to save both human lives and money".
On 5 October, Michel Barnier will go before a joint meeting of the Parliamentary committees on the environment and regional development to present his report. (an)
(EU) EP/SECURITY/DEFENCE
Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - It was first and foremost in his capacity as the author of the report on the creation of a European civil protection force that Michel Barnier - former French Foreign Minister, former European Commissioner and former member of the Convention that drafted the EU's constitutional treaty - took the floor on 2 October at the European Parliament's sub-committee on security and defence. The debate focused on the aim and the missions of EuropAid - the name of a new idea put forward for improving European international crisis response in the event of natural disasters, large-scale attacks and pandemics. Michel Barnier's detailed presentation on early warning for disasters and his recommended pooling of existing national instruments were generally well received as were his answers to parliamentary questions. This is reassuring for someone who initiated a project that has been at a standstill since it was presented to the European Council in June this year at the request of the Council President at the time, Wolfgang Schüssel, and Commission President José Manuel Barroso (EUROPE 9188).
By way of introduction, Karl von Wogau (EPP-ED, Germany), chairing the EP's sub-committee on defence and security, gratefully recalled that Michel Barnier was the father of the solidarity clause and the Armaments Agency (proposals made under the defence chapter of the Convention), the Agency having seen light of day independently of the moribund draft Treaty. Echoing this, Michel Barnier stressed the points of convergence between the Karl von Wogau report on ESDP developments and his own report on the creation of a European civil protection force, namely: one and the same institutional approach, one and the same European solidarity approach with double anchoring in the mutual assistance clause, and the proposal for a tool to meet the challenge of effective EU action. “You suggest a common European defence market with deployment capacity of 60,000 troops in sixty days, and civil crisis management capacity of member States. I have suggested the acquisition in common of equipment and complementarity in military transport in the case of emergency (…). The need to face up to the tsunami in southern Asia left me bitter in my capacity as foreign minister, but it also taught me a lesson. Prevention costs less than repair. It is better to prepare the response rather than improvise. This is important when one speaks of a Europe of Projects”, Michel Barnier said.
Summarising the twelve measures of his proposal, Michel Barnier stressed the need to “organise a European reflex of solidarity”, a reflex that is “legitimate, and expected both within and outside the EU in an increasingly unstable, troubled and dangerous world landscape”. The World Bank figures, that he cited, prove this: natural disasters are not only increasingly frequent - having affected the lives and health of 2.6 billion men and women in the world over the past ten years (1984-2003), i.e. one billion more than over the previous decade - but they also cost more and more: $652 billion in the nineties, i.e. fifteen times more than in the fifties. Since 1999, no fewer than 37 disasters have taken place in the world, including 17 that directly affected European territory. To date, there are no pre-identified human and material means that can be mobilised as a European response. “We have had to wait three years to create the solidarity fund that today has one billion euros. Now all that has to be done is to pool the national civil protection forces”, Mr Barnier stressed. The idea is to create a “European pool” to meet urgent humanitarian needs respecting double subsidiarity towards the United Nations and EU Member States, and identifying the European means managed in and by Member States. Each of these States should identify human and material means that can be used in common, and placed voluntarily in common in accordance with pre-identified financial agreements. European financing (10% of the Solidarity Fund) would only be a last resort to fill any gaps or failings in military transport means.
“When a maritime disaster occurs, each Member State currently has ships able to pump oil at sea during storms. Is this not something that the EU could look at?”, Michel Barnier asked, stressing the interest that would, for example, lie in buying three ships in common to be positioned in different geographic areas. The same remark, he says, is valid for the purchase of heavy carrier aircraft for evacuating populations, or helicopters for use against fires.
As the operational centre, based in Brussels, which is the keystone of the outfit, has identified crisis categories (earthquake or tsunami, major fires of forest fire, floods, nuclear and industrial accidents, large-scale terrorist attacks, disasters at sea, pandemics), it is now working on reaction protocols- "technical and operational protocols to prepare for the European response". The coordination and mobilisation of resources is to be done from this centre, from Brussels. This will be added: - the creation of a training institute for those involved in civil protection and humanitarian aid, tasked with organising joint exercises and training, allowing them to "learn how to talk to each other" and guarantee " the interoperability of operations"; and a civil security Council (made up of the President of the Council of the EU, the High Representative for CFSP, the President of the Commission and the Chief of Staff). This Council will hold ad hoc meetings at which it will decide to pledge the action of the European civil protection force; the pooling of consular resources on the ground, the creation of a steering consular team, and the creation of European consulates at least between the countries of the Schengen zone.
"I will soon be holding a meeting with the Finnish Presidency. I hope that it will not take any more tsunamis for this force to come into being, as it will be a European project to respond to a genuine need in Europe and the world", Mr Barnier concluded.
Answering a question put by Mr Von Wogau, Mr Barnier stated that the operational centre will be the equivalent of a "reinforced MIC" (the Monitoring and Information Centre to coordinate civil protection actions, currently housed within DG Environment of the European Commission: Ed) with expertise in evaluation and preparation, and not just reaction, which will bring together "all of these experts, capable of working together, within one building in Brussels". Mr Kuhne (PES, Germany) asked whether the "Brussels team" would intervene irrespective of the scale of the disaster, to which Mr Barnier replied: "there is no question of substituting European action for national action. The first response will be national or regional. The European force will only get involved in supranational disasters". Replying to Tobias Pflüger (GUE/NGL, Germany), who opposed the military component of the resources to be mobilised and wanted to know more about collaboration with NATO, Mr Barnier pointed out that "in order to transport civil protection resources, we need military resources. We must create a European pool of high-capacity transport resources, under the colours of EuropAid. Cooperation with NATO relates to the use of transport resources".
Bronislaw Geremek (ALDE , Poland), who sees Mr Barnier's report as "one of the most interesting European documents after the draft constitution", said that he was "disappointed with the cold welcome he had received" from the Member States. What must be done to ensure that the draft is not buried? What could be the instrument which could help it move forward, as early as this year? Could the creation of a EuropAid forum open to civil society, which would meet annually to report back on the state of play, with the support of the Parliament, be this instrument? And what will be the first stage, he wondered. "The political support of the Parliament is a decisive factor", Michel Barnier replied. "And the first stage is the creation of the operational centre, by the European Commission, with the support of the Council. I presented my report to the European Council under the Austrian Presidency. The Finnish Presidency is taking over. I cannot implement it all on my own. I have proposed an implementation and scoreboard over five years. It could be that the signal to launch will be given tomorrow".
In answer to Mr Vytautas Landsbergis (EPP-ED, Lithuania), who "greatly appreciates the report as a framework highly adapted to crisis reaction", but criticises the shortcomings in the EU's management of the "Caucasian tsunami", where the "Russian peacekeeping forces in Georgia" should be replaced, Michel Barnier explained that the management of political crises was not in the mandate conferred upon him.
"This is an excellent job of work, but first things first. Without a new Constitution, what political recommendations will you be able to present to the Member States for developing joint rules, civil and military?", asked Jana Hybaskova (EPP-ED, Czech Republic). Mr Girts Valdis Kristovskis (UEN, Latvia) congratulated Mr Barnier for the extreme clarity of his report and the correctness of his preventive approach, but did raise questions about the costs of implementing a centralised European system.
Michel Barnier made a combined attack, declaring: "I know how complex the workings of the European institutions are, but the question is as follows: are we going to continue to respond to international disasters on a completely uncoordinated basis, sending aircraft apparently at random, as happened with the tsunami? The less efficient the response, the more expensive it is. Let us not forget the cost of non-Europe! Joint resources and teams will help to save both human lives and money".
On 5 October, Michel Barnier will go before a joint meeting of the Parliamentary committees on the environment and regional development to present his report. (an)
Tobias Pflüger - 2006/10/06 09:42
Trackback URL:
https://tobiaspflueger.twoday.net/stories/2766507/modTrackback