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Cyclone Haiyan: London goes all out. The Commission commits an additional 7 million

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(Credit: European Commission)

(BRUSSELS2) On a visit to the Philippines, Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid announced this Saturday (16 November) the release of an additional 7 million euros in emergency aid provided to NGOs on the spot, including the Federation International Red Cross. If we do the accounts, 3 million had already been released on Monday (11 November) for emergency humanitarian aid (*) and 10 for the long-term reconstruction of disaster areas, on Tuesday (12 November) by Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. This amounts to a total of nearly 20 million euros in European aid, the Commission is keen to point out. European aid is slowly increasing. The Member States have already released around 25 million euros, to which must be added the aid announced recently.

UK releases 30 million pounds

Prime Minister David Cameron announced this Saturday the release of £30 million (about €35 million) "to support the efforts of the United Nations and the Red Cross (*) on the ground". A C130 Hercules transport plane will also be deployed to distribute aid on site. This is for the moment the most important aid for the survivors of Cyclone Haiyan, released by one of the Member States of the EU, far ahead of the Netherlands and Germany (Read: Cyclone Haiyan, European aid is in place). Berlin announced on Friday the increase in its aid with an additional 3 million euros, in addition to the envelope of 1,5 million already released. The first flight of the Federal Agency for Technical Cooperation (THW) and Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross) arrived Thursday in the Cebu area with 70 tons on board.

NB: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called on Tuesday (November 12) for the release of 87 million from France Switzerland (69 million euros) to deal with the humanitarian disaster of Cyclone Haiyan.

(Loreline Merelle & Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(*) this is the amount that can be released in a few hours on the sole decision of the commissioner

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Loreline Merelle

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