By Martha Moss - 18th August 2010
We have been negligent to the necessity to act preventatively and manage development in a way that it reduces the risk of disaster
Kristalina Georgieva
Unveiling an additional €30m of funding for the flood victims in Pakistan, EU humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva criticised Europe's "negligent" efforts on disaster prevention.
The additional funding, announced by the commissioner in Brussels on Wednesday, brings the total donated by the EU to €70m.
Georgieva, who will travel to the affected area in Pakistan next week, told reporters that the money would be used to support humanitarian aid operations for the millions of people hit by the floods.
The latest UN estimates suggest that some 2000 people have been killed and almost 20 million affected by the flooding.
"The flood damage in Pakistan is massive and many millions of people are suffering," Georgieva said.
"The additional funds will be used to boost the humanitarian aid operations carried out by the European commission's humanitarian aid partners.
"[The] commission's relief experts are also active on the ground in Pakistan. They are working with our partners to ensure that funds are being used in the most efficient way possible to the benefit of the desperate victims of these disastrous floods."
Warning that Pakistan now faced "two disasters in one", Georgieva spoke of the "internally displaced population" in the north - who have "already been devastated by conflicts".
"They are now hit very hard again by the flash floods - this is where most of the loss of life has occurred," she said.
And the south, which "relies on agricultural land to feed its people, poor rural and vulnerable populations [is] affected by slow but steady rise of the water", she added.
Her comments came after French president Nicolas Sarkozy wrote to commission president José Manuel Barroso saying the EU could "do more", and called for a crisis response force to be set up to help coordinate disaster response efforts.
Georgieva said she agreed with Sarkozy on the need to improve coordination. "It is not a matter of whether we should do it, it is a matter of how we should do it," she said.
She added that she would use next week's visit to Pakistan to work on overall coordination and disaster risk reduction, and to discuss a proposed donor conference.
In Pakistan, the EU is facing "not only nature coming with an extreme hit, but also the fact that we have been negligent to the necessity to act preventatively and manage development in a way that it reduces the risk of disaster", she said.
For Georgieva, the situation in Pakistan, as well as other disasters - such as the floods in parts of Europe, and the fires in Russia and Portugal - should act as a "call to all of us to lift of our game, lift our ambition, in terms of the effectiveness of disaster response".
The commission would set out plans to improve aid efficiency in late September, she said, adding, "We in the EU can demonstrate that the whole can be bigger than the sum of the parts.
"That the 27 countries and commission can act more effectively and efficiently for the benefit of those we are trying to help overseas."
However, aid agencies have warned that the UN appeal for €360m "remains dangerously underfunded".
Elise Ford, the head of Oxfam's EU office, said, "€30m sounds a lot of money but it will take billions to rebuild the country".
"The Pakistani people need food, shelter, clean water and medical help now. But they will also need support for long-term recovery and development. Many of these people have lost everything - their homes, family, agricultural produce and livestock. They are going to need help for many years to come to get them back on their feet."
She added that the commission's move, which makes it the second largest donor behind the US, "needs to be a rallying call for those EU countries that have failed to adequately respond to this disaster of an unprecedented scale. More money is urgently needed to avert the risk of a public health crisis".
"In the build up to the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on 10 September, member states must now dig deep to come forward with a generous European package for immediate relief, ensure maximum coordination of efforts, and start the all important careful planning for support for the massive reconstruction efforts which will be required," said Ford.
Not including today's announcement, the commission has provided more than €111m in humanitarian aid to people in need in Pakistan over the past year.
