Disasters in the EU: Georgieva wants to speed up the release of funds

(BRUSSELS2) The European Commissioner for Civil Protection, the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, would like the aid provided inside the European Union to have the same effectiveness as that provided outside. She confirmed this during her press conference on August 18, devoted mainly to Pakistan. " It's a little abnormal — she explained, responding to a question posed by a colleague from Polish television — I have the option of triggering financial assistance within 24 hours up to a limit of 3 million euros when there is an accident in a country that does not belong to the European Union (Moldova or Ukraine) within the framework of the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) (1). But for Poland or Romania I can't. And the funds from the Solidarity Fund take several long months to be released (a budgetary procedure is required with the agreement of the 27 Member States and the European Parliament for each financing).

The Commissioner therefore wants to evolve this device because this creates frustrations for our populations ". " I would like to propose an identical system inside the EU. I am going to propose for the Member States to have a payment in advance, fast, which will demonstrate our solidarity. » This should be part of the proposals that it will put on the table in the communication, which it will present in the autumn (text presented to the Commission in October, adopted in November).

(1) The EC effectively formalised, at the beginning of the 1990s, a specific procedure for humanitarian aid enabling funds to be released as quickly as possible. A first emergency aid can thus be released, on simple signature of the "highest ranking in the house" (the commissioner if he is there, the general manager or the director of duty), within the limit of an amount of 3 million. Beyond that, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid has been delegated by the Commission to take decisions up to 10 million euros (long-lasting crisis) or 30 million euros (emergency crisis), after an initial assessment .

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)