I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

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Humanitarian crises have strong political implications. The political establishment in the crisis zone is often part of the
crisis problem and political ties need to be considered. Conversely, people within the EU sometimes have a very selective
appreciation for sending help into areas which are not prominent holiday destinations.
It is commonly assumed that these types of crisis are located more outside EU territory but require action from the European
Community. However, the EU borders could become a very close area for problems, as the current refugee situation in the
Mediterranean illustrates.
Humanitarian crises are a major concern for all actors in the EU’s external Crisis Management system . The EU has a number
of Community instruments specifi cally designed for addressing crisis situations, and operates usually in cooperation with
international actors, its Member States and the local organisations:
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY INSTRUMENTS FOR CRISIS RESPONSE
HUMANITARIAN AID Provides assistance, relief and protection to victims of natural and man made disasters such
as confl icts or outbreaks of violence
CIVIL PROTECTION
SECURITY MECHANISM
THE INSTRUMENT FOR
STABILITY
Table 4: European Community Crisis Management Instruments
Facilitates cooperation in civil protection assistance interventions
Crisis response component for providing assistance to enable timely response to political
crises or natural disasters when such response cannot be provided through other
Community external assistance measures or instruments
In addition, other Crisis Management related activities are executed under the control of individual EU Member States, other
states, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, etc. The main challenges, however, can be sorted into the
following points (see table 6).
CHALLENGES
“HUMANITARIAN
CRISES”
MULTI-FACETED
APPROACH
IMPLEMENTATION
OF COORDINATING
MECHANISMS AND
PROCEDURES
COORDINATION WITH
MILITARY FORCES
DESCRIPTION
Today, major and large scale humanitarian crises tend to require a multi-faceted approach
that makes use of more than one Community or other crisis instrument. The European Union
and its Member States should have the means and procedures in place to help coordinate
humanitarian and other assistance as such, on an operational, non-political level 7.
Credibility and visibility requires the EU and its Member States to respond timely, effi ciently
and eff ectively to a crisis situation. The practical implementation of coordinating mechanisms
and procedures is a key topic 3 .
The case of coordination with military forces providing security and also with humanitarian
assistance in a crisis is particularly challenging. There is an accepted set of rules for the use of
civil protection resources and military assets in response to humanitarian situations, but there is
still a large need for constructive development of practical methods of cooperation, especially
when the cause of the humanitarian crisis is a confl ict, or the crisis takes place in a confl ict zone.
In addition to the central problem of coordination, there are numerous challenges more
directly related to the work in the fi eld.
ESRIF FINAL REPORT - PART 2 • Working Group: Crisis Management