An EU cell to coordinate logistical aid to Haiti

(BRUSSELS2) The EU could set up a small cell to coordinate the heavy logistical aid provided to Haiti by the military and civil security forces of the Member States. Clearing road and sea access routes is undoubtedly a less media-friendly type of aid than the search for survivors in rubble, or field hospitals, or even the security, but it responds to a real need today in Haiti to allow access to all villages, facilitate humanitarian aid and prepare for reconstruction.

Alain Leroy the head of the DKPO (UN peacekeeping department) had sent Brussels a request focused on several points, including humanitarian support, heavy helicopters, and engineers and engineers to open the roads, and maritime logistics capable of reopening all the facilities of the port. The 27 Ministers of Foreign Affairs could thus decide, on Monday, the establishment of this coordination cell in Brussels. We can recall that two ships are already on site, under the national flag with this task: a Dutch one, the Hs Ms Pelikaan, and a Frenchman, the Batral Francis Garnier. The objective is, there too, as for security, to give the European Union a little more coordination and visibility in its efforts.

This cell would be "light": a few people at most, based in Brussels - the presence of coordinators on the spot is under study, specifies a diplomat - somewhat on the model of the "EuNavco" cell (1) - which had preceded setting up the Eunavfor Atalanta operation - and was responsible for coordinating European efforts in the fight against pirates.

We thus see the emergence of a new type of European action, located between the military operation or the heavy civilian mission, and the existing institutions, of coordination cell; comprising military, civil protection and civilian elements... It also illustrates the defect of the European "armor". There is currently no civil-military command center at European level capable of coordinating one-off emergency aid, to respond to a natural or technological disaster, a risk to the safety of European citizens in the stranger. In my opinion, it is just as necessary as a permanent military HQ... I will come back to this!

(1) Read:The mandate of EU Navco Somalia, anti-piracy coordination. Details