EU and UN to increase disaster relief coordination

The EU is set to team up with the UN in a bid to improve its response to major disasters.

Brussels hopes that better cooperation with the UN during humanitarian emergencies will cut down on duplication of effort and increase the effectiveness of any EU response.

“We have a lot of experience,” Austrian interior minister Liese Prokop told journalists on Monday, after initial talks in Brussels, “But there is room for improvement between players.”

Austria, the EU’s current presidency holders will propose a series of concrete measures to improve coordination with the UN during an expert’s seminar in Salzburg in May, said Prokop.

“We want to underline our willingness to cooperate…to make further progress by providing strategic and operational input to the expert’s conference,” said Prokop.

The Austrian measures will include common training programmes, increased information exchanges and improved coordination setting out clear divisions of tasks and responsibilities.

Prokop also wants more frequent EU participation in UN disaster relief exercises.

EU environment chief, Stavros Dimas welcomed the Austrian initiative.

“These discussions not only allow us to focus on improving coordination and communication between the EU and UN, but also enable us to address the wider issues of civil protection,” said Dimas.

“The EU has demonstrated again and again that its fine-tuned disaster preparedness can make a considerable difference, not only for those immediately affected but also for the efforts to rebuild and reconstruct.”

“Catastrophes require a coordinated response, the better the coordination the more efficient our response is.”

Dimas said Europe’s response, to humanitarian disasters such as the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake, through the EU’s civil protection mechanism, was proof that open communication, efficient coordination and cross national cooperation was crucial to an effective strategy.

“Twenty four hours after the US issued a request for international assistance, following Hurricane Katrina, the first cargo planes sent by the EU mechanism had arrived,” said Dimas.

The Greek commissioner said that enhanced cooperation and coordination with the UN and EU member states would improve three key civil protection issues, “better transport, the hiring of equipment and better early warning systems.”

The EU-UN high level meeting on civil protection and disaster response cooperation will take place on May 8 in Salzburg.

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