The Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), formerly known as the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office, is the European Commission's department for overseas humanitarian aid and for civil protection. It aims to save and preserve life, prevent and alleviate human suffering and safeguard the integrity and dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises.[1] Since September 2019, Janez Lenarčič is serving as Commissioner for Crisis Management in the Von der Leyen Commission, and since 1 March 2023,[2]Maciej Popowski leads the organisation as the Director-General.
The EU budget of the department as programmed in the EU's Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 amounts to a total of €9.76 billion for the entire seven years.[3] For 2021, the European Commission has adopted its initial annual humanitarian budget of €1.4 billion.[4] Together with its Member States, DG ECHO is a leading humanitarian donor, allocating funding to millions of crisis-affected people in more than 80 countries.[5]
For its humanitarian interventions, DG ECHO usually funds operations through a wide range of around 200 partners (NGOs, UN agencies, and international organisations such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.[6] DG ECHO has a strong presence in the field, with a network of some 450 staff in over 500 field offices spread in 40 countries.[7] The field offices provide analysis of existing and forecasted needs in a given country or region, contribute to the development of intervention strategies and policy development, provide technical support to EU-funded operations, and ensure monitoring of these interventions and facilitate donor's coordination at field level.[8]
In addition to providing funding to humanitarian aid, DG ECHO is also in charge of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism [9] to coordinate the response to disasters in Europe and beyond and contributes to at least 75% of the transport and/or operational costs of deployments. Established in 2001, the Mechanism fosters cooperation among national civil protection authorities across Europe. Currently 37 countries are members of the Mechanism; all 27 EU Member States in addition to Iceland, Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Turkey, Albania, Moldova, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[10] The Mechanism was set up to enable coordinated assistance from the participating states to victims of natural and man-made disasters in Europe and elsewhere.
History
The European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) was established in 1992 by the Second Delors Commission. With the European Community being abolished in 2009, the office began to be known as the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department of the European Commission or European Union, but kept its ECHO abbreviation.
After the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, the Barroso Commission accepted the prize money on behalf of the EU and allocated it to a new initiative called Children of Peace. Approximately €2 million was set aside for the Children of Peace projects in 2013. It was increased to €4 million in 2014.[11]
Mandate and Principles
Firefighting planes can be mobilized across participating countries.
DG ECHO's mandate is to provide emergency assistance and relief (in the form of goods and services) to victims of conflict and natural or man-made disasters outside the EU. Its civil protection mandate also extends to disaster prevention and preparedness actions, response and post-crisis operations inside the EU and worldwide.
European humanitarian aid and EU funded humanitarian operations are based on compliance with international law, in particular international humanitarian law, and the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.[12]
Humanity means that human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found, with particular attention to the most vulnerable; neutrality means that humanitarian aid must not favour any side in an armed conflict or other dispute; impartiality means that humanitarian aid must be provided solely on the basis of need, without discrimination; and independence means the autonomy of humanitarian objectives from political, economic, military or other objectives.
In 2007, at the initiative of Commissioner Louis Michel, the European Commission adopted a "European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid" to constitute the first European political text of reference on humanitarian aid.[13] NGOs participated actively to the drafting of the European Consensus and it can be considered "the most comprehensive text and the nearest common position to NGOs".[14] The European Consensus reaffirms the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. It also stipulates "humanitarian aid is not a management tool for crises management".
Following its adoption, the Consensus has served as the reference point on the role of humanitarian aid in the EU's broader external action. This was reaffirmed at an event marking the ten years of the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid in 2017.[15] This is also clearly acknowledged in the Commission Communication on the EU's humanitarian action: new challenges, same principles,[16] which was adopted in March 2021.
Additionally, civil protection was adopted as a part of ECHO's mandate to ensure better cooperation and protection during disaster among third and regional countries and international organisations.
Primary and secondary law
Since the Lisbon Treaty came into force, the EU's humanitarian aid action is ruled by Article 214 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).[17] Humanitarian aid is a shared parallel competence: this means that the EU conducts an autonomous policy, which neither prevents the Member States from exercising their competences nor makes the EU's policy merely “complementary” to those of the Member States.[18] The Lisbon Treaty introduced, for the first time, humanitarian aid as a policy in its own right in the Treaties.
As defined in article 214 TFEU, the EU's operations in the field of humanitarian aid are intended to provide ad hoc assistance and relief for people in third countries who are victims of natural or man-made disasters. Article 214 TFEU also makes it clear that EU humanitarian aid operations must be conducted in compliance with the principles of international law and with the principles of impartiality, neutrality and non-discrimination.[19]
The basic act relied upon by DG ECHO to administer EU humanitarian aid finding has been adopted before the Lisbon Treaty and is still mostly in use (setting aside some institutional adaptations to take into account the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty). The 1996 Humanitarian Aid Regulation[20] lays down the objectives and general principles of EU-funded humanitarian aid as well as the procedures for implementing EU-funded humanitarian aid operations. Concerning the latter aspects, the regulation specifies notably the categories of entities eligible to EU humanitarian funding, while referring to the EU Financial Regulation for what concerns most of the contract-related, financial and administrative procedures to be complied with by DG ECHO.
The EU's competence in the field of Civil Protection is ruled by Article 196 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.[21] The EU has a supporting competence in the field of civil protection. In line with the principle of subsidiarity, the primary responsibility to protecting people, property and the environment, including cultural heritage, lies with the Member States. As part of the 2019 legislative reform, EU Civil Protection was reinforced with the creation of rescEU.[22] The rescEU capacities are available under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and can be deployed as a last-resort mechanism when Member States are overwhelmed by an emergency. In May 2021, the European Parliament and the Council adopted targeted changes to the legislation. As part of this targeted revision, the Emergency Response Coordination Centre's operational coordination and monitoring role for disasters within and outside the Union was enhanced, as well as the EU role in managing rescEU.[23]
Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC)
EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre
The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) coordinates the delivery of assistance to disaster stricken countries, such as relief items, expertise, civil protection teams and specialised equipment. Based in Brussels, the Centre ensures the rapid deployment of emergency support and acts as a coordination hub between all EU Member States, the 6 additional Participating States, the affected country, and civil protection and humanitarian experts. The Centre operates 24/7 and can help any country inside or outside the EU affected by a major disaster upon request from the national authorities, a UN body or a relevant international organisation, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) or the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The Centre ensures cooperation and coherence of EU action at an inter-institutional level, focusing on coordination mechanisms with the European External Action Service, the Council and EU Member States. It also acts as the central 24/7 contact point when the Solidarity Clause is invoked. It also provides emergency communications and monitoring tools through the Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS), a web-based alert and notification application enabling a real-time exchange of information.
The Centre replaced and extended the functions of the former Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), that was set up in 2013 [24] by then Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva in her role as International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner.
The Centre makes use of various Early Warning and Information Systems, including the EU's Copernicus earth observation programme. Through the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, the Centre can make use of high resolution satellite maps to monitor events before they happen, and to assess their impact once they have hit an area.[25]
EU Aid Volunteers
EU Aid Volunteers brings volunteers and organisations together from different countries (for example, Nepal), providing practical support to humanitarian aid projects and contributing to strengthening local capacity and resilience of disaster-affected communities. Participants in the EU Aid Volunteers initiative must be over 18 years of age and be a citizen of an EU Member State or a long-term resident in the EU. Volunteers receive accommodation and travel expenses, insurance, ongoing learning and development, a monthly allowance, and a resettlement allowance to help with expenses of returning home.
The European Parliament voted in favour of this initiative in February 2014. EU Aid Volunteers supports humanitarian aid organisations. EU Aid Volunteers projects, run by partners of EU-based and non-EU based organisations, strengthen the capacity of non-EU based organisations to prepare for and respond to humanitarian crises and to improve their volunteer management. It also provides funding for technical assistance to EU-based organisations to strengthen their technical capacity and meet the standards and procedures required to deploy EU Aid Volunteers.
Investing in capacity building of humanitarian organisations, local communities and first responders in disaster-affected countries is essential for creating a more effective, principled humanitarian response, which is why it is also supported under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.[26] As of January 2021, the EU Aid Volunteers programme falls under the responsibility of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education, Audiovisual and Culture (DG EAC) and is managed by the European Commission Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture.[27]
Humanitarian needs kept increasing due to complex crises – often causing massive population displacement – as well as to disasters and epidemic outbreaks. Against this background, DG ECHO has remained a leading humanitarian donor, allocating EUR 2.4 billion to millions of crisis-affected people in more than 80 countries. To address the growing humanitarian funding gap, DG ECHO continued promoting the implementation of the Grand Bargain commitments, notably in relation to multi-sectoral joint needs assessment.
A significant proportion of the EU humanitarian aid was devoted to crisis-affected people inside Syria and its neighbouring countries, including the humanitarian component of the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey. The EU also focused on supporting populations in "forgotten crises”, such as in the Central African Republic, Sudan, Pakistan, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti, and the Philippines.
DG ECHO played a leading role in the promotion of a principled humanitarian aid and respect of international humanitarian law. It did so through active advocacy for specific humanitarian crises, but also globally as chair of the Donor Support Group of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and of the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative (with Switzerland).[28]
DG ECHO funds and uses for its evidence-based approach, the INFORM Risk index developed by the Joint Research Centre, and which is becoming the de facto risk assessment methodology for many organisations such as the UN and INGO's. The adopted budget for 2021 is set at €1 491 512 450 in commitments for humanitarian aid and €90 203 000 for civil protection.[29]
Strategy
On 10 March 2021, the European Commission adopted the Communication “the EU's humanitarian action: new challenges, same principles”.[30] The communication sets out a number of key objectives and key actions to address growing humanitarian needs and support a better enabling environment for the delivery of principled humanitarian aid.
Every year, DG ECHO develops a set of priorities in order to co-ordinate its activities efficiently and in an impartial, needs-based approach. To ensure maximum transparency, the department's annual humanitarian priorities are available to the public. In order to establish consistency in the allocation of resources to different countries according to their respective needs, and to guarantee the credibility and transparency of humanitarian aid, the European Commission has developed a set of rigorous needs assessment tools.[31]
Additionally, DG ECHO seeks further synergies with the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to engage with, and support, local and national government structures and response systems, including the use of specific tools such as the Civil Protection Prevention and Preparedness Missions.
Reform
The former commissioner for aid, Louis Michel, had called for aid to be delivered more rapidly, to greater effect and on humanitarian principles.[32]
The appointment of a new commissioner with a portfolio for International cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response corresponds to articles 214 and 196 of the Treaty of Lisbon where Humanitarian aid and Civil Protection play a sustainable role. ECHO's official name was changed to Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection. The transformation of ECHO and the movement of the Civil Protection unit from DG Environment to DG ECHO is a step forward for better cooperation and decision making in a field where rapid reaction is lifesaving.
Clare Short, former British International Development Secretary said the European Commission ran ‘the worst development agency in the world’ and branded its operations ‘an outrage and a disgrace’.[citation needed] Since 2012, the Commission developed an action plan and guidelines on resilience and linking between relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRD).[33]
The Commission passed new legislation in 2013 on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism which provides better coordination and support to improve effectiveness of prevention, preparation, and response systems during disasters. The legislation establishes a voluntary pool of pre-committed response capacities and materials, a training network for first responders, and a new approach for disaster risk management from 31 participating states.[34]
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism also established the opening of the new Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), a civil protection 'hub' for monitoring disasters and enhancing preparedness and resilience of disaster-prone countries. The most recent uses of the Civil Protection mechanism occurred during flooding in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in 2014[35] and evacuating EU nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic.[36]
In 2022, the Scientific Advice Mechanism to the European Commission delivered a major piece of advice on improving strategic crisis management in the European Union. As well as summarising the historical and current provision within DG-ECHO and elsewhere, the advice recommends "that existing and future legislation and instruments should be integrated in a framework that is capable of dealing with increasingly systemic and large-scale crises in a structural way".[37]
European Parliament Report
The Committee on Development (CD) of the EP commissioned the Overseas Development Institute to undertake a project on the effectiveness of international development assistance from the European Commission in 2010.[38] The project focused on the cases of Cambodia, Mozambique and Peru. The findings and policy suggested can be summarized as follows:[38]
Harmonisation and alignment (H&A) is crucial for state capacity and should be expanded from sharing and spreading information to increasing joint activities in the short-term.
Donor harmonisation efforts need to be scaled up to include agreements on joint technical assistance and the streamlining of systems and procedures
Extremely fragmented aid systems impose unreasonably high transaction costs on the government, drains valuable resources, and fundamentally weakens state capacity.
EC procedures and structures remain highly complicated and bureaucratic.
Much of the success or failure of cooperation depends on individual interactions, specific innovators and appropriate staffing levels to carry out the tasks at hand, but the costs are also quite high.
Country Strategy Papers could improve aid effectiveness — but their quality is uneven.
Relations between HQ and delegations needs to be improved.
Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation and recovery. Programs of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s and were implemented in some countries during the 1930s as the threat of war and aerial bombardment grew. Civil-defense structures became widespread after authorities recognised the threats posed by nuclear weapons.
Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Humanitarian relief efforts are provided for humanitarian purposes and include natural disasters and human-made disasters. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may, therefore, be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying socioeconomic factors which may have led to a crisis or emergency. There is a debate on linking humanitarian aid and development efforts, which was reinforced by the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. However, the conflation is viewed critically by practitioners.
A humanitarian crisis is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.
Emergency management or disaster management is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actually focus on the management of emergencies, which can be understood as minor events with limited impacts and are managed through the day-to-day functions of a community. Instead, emergency management focuses on the management of disasters, which are events that produce more impacts than a community can handle on its own. The management of disasters tends to require some combination of activity from individuals and households, organizations, local, and/or higher levels of government. Although many different terminologies exist globally, the activities of emergency management can be generally categorized into preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery, although other terms such as disaster risk reduction and prevention are also common. The outcome of emergency management is to prevent disasters and where this is not possible, to reduce their harmful impacts.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disasters. It is the successor to the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO).
Disaster response refers to the actions taken directly before, during or in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The objective is to save lives, ensure health and safety and to meet the subsistence needs of the people affected. This includes warning/evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate assistance, assessing damage, continuing assistance and the immediate restoration or construction of infrastructure. The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate assistance to maintain life, improve health and support the morale of the affected population. Such assistance may range from providing specific but limited aid, such as assisting refugees with transport, temporary shelter, and food to establishing semi-permanent settlements in camps and other locations. It also may involve initial repairs to damage or diversion to infrastructure.
The Directorate-General for International Partnerships is the European Commission department responsible for international development policy. It operates under the authority of the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen.
The European Commissioner for Crisis Management is a member of the European Commission. The portfolio was previously titled Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection. The post is currently held by Janez Lenarčič.
The Instrument for Stability was a financial and political instrument at the disposal of the European Union. It was prepared at strategic level by the EEAS and implemented by the European Commission. In 2021 the IfS was merged into Global Europe.
Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) is an emergency technology non-governmental organization, which intervenes in the context of humanitarian crises, conflict zones and areas hit by natural disasters to set up satellite communication for the affected populations and humanitarian organisations.
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) is one of two treaties forming the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU), the other being the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It was previously known as the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC).
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International, established in 2003, was the humanitarian sector's first international self-regulatory body. A multi-agency initiative working to improve the accountability of humanitarian action to people affected by disasters and other crises, HAP members ranged from organisations with a mandate for emergency relief and development activities to institutional donors. The organisation aimed to strengthen accountability towards those affected by crisis situations and to facilitate improved performance within the humanitarian sector. The ultimate goal of the organisation was to uphold the rights and the dignity of crisis-affected populations across the world.
The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP), who is also President of the Foreign Affairs Council and vice-president of the European Commission, and carries out the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), including the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
Many countries around the world have civil defense organizations dedicated to protecting civilians from military attacks and providing rescue services after widespread disasters. In most countries, civil defense is a government-managed and often volunteer-staffed organization.
Emergency Management in Australia is a shared responsibility between the Government appointed body Emergency Management Australia and local councils.
The Hellenic Rescue Team is a Greek non-governmental search and rescue organisation. It is run by volunteers and operating since 1978. Since 1994 it is run as an association. HRC is cooperating with the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union. The Hellenic Rescue Team was awarded with the Nansen Refugee Award in 2016 and Mother Teresa Award in 2017 for its role in the European refugee and migrant crisis.
This article outlines the defence forces of the European Union (EU), which implement the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in CSDP missions. There are two categories of EU multinational forces: ones that have been established intergovernmentally and made available to the CSDP through article 42.3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), such as the Eurocorps; and the EU Battlegroups, established at the EU level.
Florika Fink-Hooijer is a European civil servant at the European Commission. She leads the Directorate General for the Environment, which holds large responsibilities under the European Green Deal.
In the realm of humanitarian aid, Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) is recognized as an umbrella term for two of the common modalities of assistance for delivering swift and flexible humanitarian aid support to populations affected by various crises, the third being in-kind assistance.
The CALP Network is an organisation originating in 2005 and officially launched in 2009 as The Cash Learning Partnership, with the objectives of increasing the scale and quality of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) employed by humanitarian agencies around the world to deliver aid. CVA encompasses aid delivered as cash, or vouchers exchangeable for goods and services, directly to recipients, and represents an increasingly significant aid modality amounting to 21% of total international humanitarian assistance expenditure in 2022. CALP works to build CVA capacity within aid organisations, especially by providing training and e-learning; coordinates the use of CVA by agencies; compiles and shares knowledge and research; and contributes to the development of policy environments encompassing CVA.
↑ Hans (24 April 2020). "Bringing stranded citizens home". European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations - European Commission. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
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