Commissioner Nielson's Speech at the Annual ECHO Partners Conference

Good morning,

It is with great pleasure that I am here to address this assembly again. As you know, I appreciate this dialogue very much and in fact it represents the kind of exchange that I find extremely important.

I also take this opportunity to welcome the first representatives of the NGOs from the accession countries. Enlargement is indeed a challenge and a magnificent opportunity for the European Union to extend a zone of stability and prosperity.

The challenges are many as you are perfectly aware. And we have to stand firm together, defending, advocating and promoting the notion of a European humanitarian action based on the European specificity of solidarity and commitment to our common values of democracy, human rights, open dialogue and a common approach.

It is for this reason that I would like to focus the present discussion first of all on the issue of quality.

Quality is reflected by the internal evolution of the Commission itself towards a higher accountability towards the European citizens and the beneficiaries, the increased efficiency and speed of procedures, the greater flexibility to change to name just a few aspects.

For over 3 years ECHO has been improving overall quality (more consistent procedures, activity-based management, staff reorganisation, training, etc) and now we can move together towards a concrete quality partnership.

The quality and the essential impact of humanitarian aid must become self-evident and unquestionable thanks to our joint expertise, sound management, professionalism.

We should seek and build a partnership based on quality. We should keep high our standards as far as crisis response is concerned and at the same time we should keep very high standards as far as internal management is concerned.

At last year's conference the stress on and the common commitment towards quality were clearly recognised. Quality is a prerequisite, it is an objective per se and it is also a continuum, a constant work in progress.

Concretely we should build on quality management tools, minimum standards, training policies and template curricula, a central database could be envisaged because we need to share information and best practices. Member States should be encouraged to harmonise legislations. Your role in advocacy in this sense is paramount.

What is quality partnership? It is quality of results, of the operations, quality of staff at HQ and at field level, quality of management, quality of information strategy.

Thanks to the new instrument of the Framework Partnership Agreement the recognition of performance is at the basis of our work. The selection procedure of partners, the sound analysis of operations, the various steps of reporting that allow to correct the track when necessary, accountability, are all examples of this quality approach.

This attitude, this constant concern clearly shows that the humanitarian actors have reached a degree of maturity.

I also would encourage all of you towards developing the "quality ownership", which could be an "attitude", a "frame of mind" to promote personal commitment and quality attitude.

I remember that many of you last year stressed the "ethical principles" and the humanistic approach as an added value to our profession. Yes. We are dealing with people here, we are dealing with suffering. Let's never forget that.

If we adhere and commit ourselves to this target we will be able to strengthen our mission and our mandate. Quality indeed can prove to be a powerful strategic approach because it will make us and it will make you stronger with regard to other actors that might be tempted to intervene (and interfere) in the humanitarian space.

Having said this, other challenges are facing us in relation to the very definition and future of humanitarian aid. This is not only true considering the experiences of Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in the context of the Intergovernmental Conference and the new Constitutional Treaty.

One issue that comes up as a consequence of the broader discussion about how Europe should handle its external relations, is the relationship between humanitarian aid and conflict resolution or conflict prevention or crisis management. There are too many words for it, but basically they all cover aspects of the security policy. And indeed we need some new instruments to tackle the global crises we are facing. However, humanitarian aid is now in jeopardy of becoming another instrument in the handling of foreign policy.

For this reason during the discussions on the Constitutional Treaty held at the Convention, I urged the Convention to include a specific provision dealing with humanitarian aid in the treaty.

For the first time in the history of the European Union in the future Constitutional Treaty we will have an article specifically devoted to humanitarian aid as a shared competence between Member States and the EU. The insertion of this article, however, should NOT imply, in our view, any modifications in the way EC humanitarian aid is delivered; it should rather recognise the merits of our system.

The article lays down the objective of humanitarian aid, i.e. to provide assistance, relief and protection to people in third countries victims of natural or man-made disasters in order to meet the humanitarian needs arising from these situations; it then stipulates that humanitarian aid operations "shall be conducted in compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law, and in particular the principles of impartiality and non-discrimination".

Much to our regret, no reference to the key-principle of neutrality is made.

The Intergovernmental Conference started on 4 October was the much expected occasion to discuss this point, but up to now, no Member State has seen any interest in re-opening the question. The only proposed change, put forward by a group of experts in charge of a legal revision of the Treaty, is the modification of the reference to "international humanitarian law" as "international law".

Neutrality is a sine-qua-non clearly spelled out in ECHO's Regulation.

Personally, I did stress and will continue to strive to make ECHO's mandate and action as clear and independent as possible. Humanitarian aid shall remain needs-based, non-discriminatory, impartial and neutral, which means extraneous to any political considerations.

Unlike other types of aid, which may be political or conditional, EC humanitarian assistance is based on international humanitarian law principles and therefore it will never be an appropriate tool for CFSP.

The new Constitution shall have to take all this into account, keeping in mind that humanitarian aid has no place within the fight against terrorism: humanitarian aid's only fight is that against poverty, insecurity, human suffering and lack of dignity. Using humanitarian actions as part of the fight against international terrorism is contrary to the very definition of humanitarian which is by principle independent from all political considerations and implies basically bringing food, water, shelter and medical aid to people in direct and urgent need.

By defending these principles we defend the access to the victims and security of all the actors.

The IGC will decide on the amendments to the brought to the Treaty and we need your help and support to send a clear message to the national decision makers and the European citizens in order to guarantee and preserve the independence and professionalism of humanitarian aid.

We need quality and professionalism in the strategy, management and delivery of humanitarian aid. The EU is the source of over half of all official humanitarian assistance distributed world-wide. Its donor profile is extremely high and for this reason as well, humanitarian aid should be the 'business' of experienced, trained professionals such as NGOs and international organisations. It should not be delegated to a voluntary humanitarian aid corps, no matter how enthusiastic… Humanitarian aid is carried out in emergency contexts, wars, natural disasters, huge displacements of people, and in these contexts, know-how, experience and fool-proof reactions are essential as dangerous and traumatising situations are too often the rule.

This demand of independence and neutrality is not always respected and too often we witness conflicts where things get mingled. These situations are unfortunately becoming more common today.

I will also add that recent years have shown that it is possible to improve co-ordination between all those who are involved in delivering in different conflicts/crisis situations. We have today a better co-ordination with UN-agencies and humanitarian NGOs than we have had anytime before. The neutrality of ECHO as a donor and manager and co-ordinating player is essential to keep our credibility as a major international interlocutor.

As I have already stressed, one short sentence can summarise the above discussion about the political management of emergency or conflict situations and humanitarian aid: I believe that humanitarian aid is not a crisis management tool. Humanitarian aid is humanitarian aid.

It is also important to clarify the humanitarian component of the so-called Petersberg tasks, i.e. tasks conferred to the military in accordance with Article 17 of the EU Treaty dealing with the Common Foreign and Security Policy. On the basis of the UNOCHA Military and Civil Defence Assets Guidelines, the Commission presented an amendment to make the use of the Member States military forces in support of humanitarian operations exceptional and in full compliance with international humanitarian law. Unfortunately the draft Constitutional Treaty does not include this amendment: the Treaty section devoted to CSDP maintains that military means can be used by the Union for "humanitarian and rescue tasks".

We must therefore send a strong message to the IGC to urge them to take our stance into account.

No matter the number of times we have stressed these principles, humanity, neutrality, impartiality, independence and non-discrimination in the delivery of aid are the cornerstones of humanitarian aid. These principles should guarantee the security of humanitarian personnel and the access to the victims in conflict situations. Humanitarian assistance must remain neutral to avoid being taken hostage by political considerations and jeopardising humanitarian workers in the field thus making the delivery of aid impossible.

It is my strong concern to avoid all possible encroachment of the humanitarian space by military actors: not only for security reasons and to avoid humanitarian actors to become war targets, but also for the effective and professional accomplishment of the humanitarian operations. Humanitarian focus and expertise cannot be improvised.

Military assets should be requested only as a last resort, in specific situations, whenever no comparable civilian alternative exists and when only their use can meet a critical humanitarian need. Logistical or security related obstacles could justify it but the military and the humanitarian actors have to work side by side each doing its task.

Our job is delivering humanitarian aid and we must remember that victims are victims (and not political hostages or audience enhancing cases). Humanitarians' work is carried out in difficult places, with limited power and capacities, but this does not mean that we should give up. We cannot fix everything and change the world overnight. We have to be aware of our responsibilities and of our capacities; we have to be aware of what we can and of what we cannot do and of the responsibilities of the other actors and decision makers.

Let me now use this opportunity to thank all of you, our partners, for the way you work and also note that we are still progressing even if there are very big difficulties out there. We need the advice and feed-back that you can give, working in the field, and we appreciate your strongest support as to the principles that govern our work and as to the many challenges ahead.

I look forward to hearing your questions and comments. Thank you.

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• ECHO partners' annual conference on victims of humanitarian crises (6/11/2003)