EU FOREIGN policy chief Catherine Ashton has taken command of the union’s response to the Haiti earthquake, a relief effort that will be the daunting first test of new structures in place since the Lisbon Treaty came into force.
Baroness Ashton, who has called a special meeting of European development ministers next Monday, is seeking to co-ordinate the EU’s own efforts with those of its member states so that their combined work is more effective.
“I am absolutely committed to helping the people in Haiti. That is what the people of Haiti expect and they can count on us. Rebuilding Haiti is now a priority for the EU,” she said.
Her office said the first priority of Europe’s relief operations had been to deliver equipment to remove the debris, to dispatch search-and-rescue teams and to provide emergency health, water, field hospitals, tents, telecommunication and food supplies.
The EU has also indicated that it stands ready to provide additional support in other areas.
The funding of major operations to reconstruct core infrastructure in Haiti could well loom large at the meeting on Monday.
Baroness Ashton is simultaneously a vice-president of the European Commission and a member of the European Council, her post created under the reform treaty to provide greater coherence to EU’s work in the global sphere and be a figurehead in world debate.
The Haiti disaster is the first major humanitarian crisis to erupt on the world stage since she took office last month.
Criticised for her lack of diplomatic experience when European leaders chose her to be the first high representative of the union for foreign and security policy, her work to enhance the EU’s contribution to the relief efforts stands as an important early test for her office.
Baroness Ashton, who was EU trade commissioner before taking office, travels to the US next Wednesday for emergency meetings with the Obama administration and special engagements at the United Nations in New York.
With the US set to deploy as many as 10,000 troops on Monday to assist in emergency relief in Haiti, global co-ordination will be required to get the best from operations.
“While we are making sure that Haiti receives the immediate and urgent support it needs, we also have to get ready for the very important next step in helping Haiti to rebuild the country,” Baroness Ashton said. “I am in close contact with our partners in Europe and beyond to co-ordinate these efforts.”
Minister of State for Development Peter Power will represent the Government at the meeting in Brussels.
Baroness Ashton will chair the meeting, at which development ministers will discuss the EU’s contribution to the short-term relief operation and the initiation of long-term reconstruction projects in the disaster area.
Outgoing development and humanitarian aid commissioner Karel De Gucht is in charge of the commission’s own efforts. He is to be replaced in the incoming European Commission by Bulgarian nominee Rumiana Jeleva. Socialist MEPs claim she is not up to the job.
