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29th Mar 2024

Brussels defends its performance on Pakistan aid

  • Political instability, food riots, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, malaria and leptospirosis are feared to cause a "second wave" of flood deaths, with 20 percent of the country under water (Photo: Oxfam International)

The European Commission has defended its handling of the Pakistan floods after being accused of lack of generosity and having inadequate resources.

Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, a spokesman for the EU executive, on Monday (16 August) said the commission has been "the most generous donor" and the "first donor to help" after giving €40 million in the past two weeks for food, tents, blankets and hygiene kits.

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He hinted that more money is in the pipeline: "The commission is studying the possibility of further increasing our allocation. The tragedy of Pakistan is so big that we will have to continue giving aid and being present there."

He also noted that aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has "interrupted her holiday to come back to Brussels" due to the disaster, as well as the wildfires in Russia.

Figures out the same day from the US and the UK, the former colonial power in Pakistan, indicate that the commission's spending is being outpaced.

The US has so far put €59 million into the pot, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said on Monday. The UK's acting Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, said the government has put forward €38 million, while British aid agencies have raised a further €18 million.

Leading development charity Oxfam at the weekend said the EU "can afford to be much more generous." Mr Clegg on Monday called the international effort as a whole "lamentable ... pitiful."

He did not name names, but the militant outfit, the Pakistani Taliban, has so far promised €16 million compared to a €10 million pledge from Germany, the EU's largest economy.

The commission's Mr Tarradellas Espuny also reacted to a letter on Monday from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso saying the EU should create a new rapid reaction force if it is deal with Pakistan-type crises adequately.

"We must take the necessary measures and build a real EU reaction force," said Mr Sarkozy. "[I] will shortly make proposals to that effect."

Mr Tarradellas Espuny indicated that Ms Georgieva is a step ahead of the French leader, with the commission keen to protect its prerogative on EU policy proposals.

"She's been working on that paper [proposals for an EU force] since the day she took office. She has visited eight EU capitals and spoken not just with the governments but also with NGOs, civil protection people. The paper is to be ready immediately after the summer," he said.

"With climate change the number and intensity of this kind of disaster is not going to deteriorate. On the contrary, in the past few years we've seen a constant increase in the number of natural disasters linked to heavy droughts, heavy floods."

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