US embassy cable - 04BRUSSELS1123

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