HUMANITARIAN AID TO HAITI: EUROPEAN COMMISSION

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 001123

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL EAID HA EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: HUMANITARIAN AID TO HAITI: EUROPEAN COMMISSION
PLANS AND INTENTIONS

REF: STATE 52611

We delivered reftel demarche on March 12 to John Caloghirou,
Head of Unit, Caribbean and OCTs, and Lut Fabert-Goossens,
Haiti Desk Officer (both from the Development
Directorate-General of the European Commission). Caloghirou
said the European Commission (EC) had received a request for
35 million euros from the UN Flash Appeal, and that the EC
was working with the UN on the ground in Haiti to evaluate
that request. Caloghirou and Fabert-Goossens stressed that
the EC was working in several other channels to see whether
funds could be freed up for Haiti. Below is a summary of the
main points they raised:

--The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) had
been preparing a humanitarian aid package for Haiti before
the current crisis. Now, ECHO was reevaluating whether some
of that money -- perhaps "a couple of million euros,"
according to Caloghirou, could be allocated quickly to
alleviate current needs.

--The EC may also redirect some of the available balance from
the ongoing 8th European Development Fund (EDF) (planned for
the years 1997-2002); here more than 5 million euros might be
made available for humanitarian aid and support for civil
society in the areas of democratization and rule of law.

--The 9th EDF for Haiti (for 2003-2007) remains suspended
because of lack of progress toward democracy and rule of law;
a reconsideration of the suspension is scheduled for June
this year, but may be done earlier, according to Caloghirou,
if the EC decides that 9th EDF funds are needed during the
current crisis.

--Caloghirou said, "the immediate problem is not lack of
money, but reaching a common set of donor priorities."

--Caloghirou and his boss Sipke Brouwer, Director for Central
and West Africa and the Caribbean for the European
Commission's Development Directorate-General, plan to attend
a meeting on Haiti for relief agencies at the World Bank in
Washington on March 23.

FOSTER