EU must decide and deliver crisis aid faster, say foreign affairs MEPs | WPN World People News

"We need to make our budgetary procedure simpler and faster: currently there is too much bureaucracy, and money given too late for humanitarian actions is wasted money", urged Foreign Affairs Committee chair Elmar Brok (EPP, DE) in Tuesday’s committee debate on international crises in the EU’s neighbourhood. The committee is to debate the crises in Iraq, Gaza, Syria, Libya and Ukraine in meetings this week.

In Iraq, national reconciliation can be achieved only by the Iraqi people themselves, albeit with EU assistance, and EU member states must coordinate plans to arm the Kurds, said Head of the EU’s Iraq Delegation Jana Hybaskova.

In Ukraine, humanitarian aid and eventual reconstruction costs could amount to “billions of euro”, warned Ertugul Apakan, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and Peter Balas, Head of the European Commission Support Group for Ukraine.

On Wednesday morning, the Development Committee will discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In the afternoon, it will debate the crises in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine, and the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa, with Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

On Thursday morning, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee MEPs and European Commission officials will debate the Russian import ban on EU food products.

Source: European Parliament