The European Parliament adopted by 648 votes to 1 with 33 abstentions a resolution on the recent earthquake in Haiti, which measured 7.3 on the Richter scale, causing catastrophic damage to Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements in the region. Parliament refers to reports of up to 200 000 dead, 250 000 people wounded and more than 3 million people directly affected, and it expresses its sincere condolences to the people of Haiti and of other nations, and to the staff of international organisations, including the UN and the Commission, for the massive loss of life and the devastation caused by the earthquake.

Members want a comprehensive assessment to identify the population's short-term and long-term needs and establish the EU's involvement in the reconstruction process, covering the three phases of emergency aid, rehabilitation and reconstruction. The Commission is asked to proceed as soon as possible to an evaluation of the European response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti and present proposals with a view to further improving EU actions in respect of similar situations in the future. EU Priority must be to assist with the reconstruction efforts and improving the humanitarian situation. All Member States should be prepared to meet UN requests for further assistance.

Parliament welcomes the Commission's preliminary commitments to EUR 30 million in humanitarian assistance but expresses concern that the Haiti Flash Appeal launched by the OCHA for USD 575 million is 87% funded in terms of contributions. Such funding is crucial for sustaining operations in the long term. The Commission and all Member States are asked fully to honour the commitments they have made.

Pointing to the fact that Haiti is crippled by foreign debt , estimated at approximately USD 1 billion, which was an obstacle to its development even before the earthquake, Parliament welcomes the decision by the G7 countries to cancel their claims on Haiti's international debt. It expects all countries and international donors to do the same, and it also calls on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide full relief of the country's outstanding debt, including a USD 102 million emergency loan approved in January 2010. Members stress that any emergency earthquake assistance must be provided in the form of grants, not debt-incurring loans.

The resolution calls on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and the Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response to play a leading role in coordinating the Union's crisis response, using the responsibilities created under the Lisbon Treaty to coordinate the Union's response to future crises more effectively, while building on what has already been achieved.

It recognises the work done by individual Member States through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and the effective coordination of this assistance by the MIC (Monitoring and Information Centre) and ECHO teams which were deployed only hours after the earthquake. For the first time, the Commission successfully deployed two modules made available through a preparatory action on an EU Rapid Response Capability established with Parliament's support. Parliament calls for proposals as soon as possible for establishing an EU Civil Protection Force based on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and enabling the Union to bring together the resources necessary for providing initial emergency humanitarian aid within 24 hours of a disaster. It gives certain conditions for such a European rapid response mechanism, such as the fact that the mechanism should be civilian and/or humanitarian and be capable of being mobilised at any time.

Turning to the needs on the ground, Parliament expresses grave concern about the welfare of the vulnerable , particularly women. It calls on the Commission and the UN to pay special attention to women's participation in reconstruction efforts by actively involving them in the rehabilitation, reconstruction and evaluation phases of all relief and rebuilding programmes. Members also stress that unaccompanied and separated children should be provided with services aimed at reuniting them with their parents or customary care-givers as quickly as possible. The EU and international community urgently are asked to assess the need for a coordinated plan to deal with the thousands of children left orphaned by the earthquake. Parliament highlights the grave risk of human trafficking incidents, and urges the EU to support a temporary moratorium on new adoptions of children from Haiti for up to two years after tracing efforts have begun. It calls for EU efforts to provide children with their basic needs, to bring temporary schools into operation and to provide counselling to children as a matter of urgency.

Noting that estimates that 235 000 people have left Port-au-Prince and up to one million people could leave cities for the rural areas, Parliament underlines the importance of providing local authorities with appropriate aid to enable them to stimulate the economy. It calls on the EU and other international donors wherever possible to purchase locally produced food for the relief effort.

Members emphasise the need for long-term investment in the construction of earthquake-resistant buildings and in basic infrastructure , such as water supply, roads and electricity, which was non-existent or largely inadequate prior to the earthquake, thus greatly exacerbating the potential impact of natural disasters.

They call on the Commission to present to Parliament a comprehensive post-disaster needs assessment and a progress report on reconstruction , and also call for an international conference and a coordinated post-disaster needs assessment, involving the UN and the World Bank, in order to establish long-term reconstruction once the emergency operation is over.

Lastly, Parliament wants the international community to keep Haiti high on the agenda, to use this as an opportunity to tackle the root causes of the underlying poverty in Haiti once and for all, and to assist Haiti in emerging from this disaster as a fully functioning democracy with an economy that can sustain its people.

The Foreign Affairs Council, chaired by the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, discussed the coordination of the Union's overall response to the earthquake in Haiti.

To recall, after the earthquake struck, the Union immediately mobilised search and rescue teams and earmarked EUR 122 million from the Commission and the Member States combined for urgent humanitarian assistance and a further EUR 100 million for the urgent restoration of government capacity in Haiti, as well as EUR 200 million for longer-term development.

The Council focused in particular on the coordination of the Union's overall response to the disaster in the different fields of humanitarian assistance, reconstruction and development aid and the contribution by Member States of military and security assets as well as civil protection resources for the relief effort.

In addition to the immediate humanitarian and development aid earmarked at the emergency Council on 18 January 2010, it agreed that Member States would provide a collective EU contribution of at least 300 police personnel as a temporary reinforcement of the police capability of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). This would include contributions by EU Member States that are part of the European Gendarmerie Force. (France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Spain are members of the European Gendarmerie Force).

In addition, the Council also agreed to set up a cell - EUCO Haiti - in Brussels to coordinate contributions by Member States of military and security support in response to the UN appeal. The purpose of this cell would be to match contributions to needs and maximise the speed and efficiency of the Union's response, avoiding duplication. EUCO Haiti will complement the coordination of the Member States' civil protection contributions by the European Commission Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC).

The Council has also agreed to provide:

· engineering expertise and equipment to open routes in order to facilitate the delivery of aid;

· maritime logistical capacity able to operate without port facilities.

Lastly, the High Representative echoed several ministers in pointing to the need to ensure that appropriate assistance was given to children in Haiti, particularly those orphaned by the disaster.

The Council, convened by the High Representative in an extraordinary session , expressed its condolences and solidarity to the people of Haiti for the massive loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquake on 12 January. It paid tribute to the work of Haitian authorities and relief organisations and commended the rapid global response to this crisis.

The Council also welcomes the European Commission’s preliminary commitment of a total of EUR 30 million in humanitarian assistance, and by Member States who have preliminarily committed a further EUR 92 million . It also welcomes that for early non-humanitarian assistance, focusing notably on restoration of government capabilities, the preliminary financial contribution from the EU instruments amounts to EUR 100 million . Lastly, it welcomes the proposal of the Commission to dispatch a joint team of EU experts to assess the most pressing needs, notably to support the capacity of the Haitian authorities. With regard to possible contributions from the Member States, the Council will revert to the issue at its next meeting on 25 January 2010.

The Council calls for, in due course and after post emergency needs have been fully assessed, an international conference to be organised. In this regard, the Council requests that an EU-wide response to the post-emergency rehabilitation , recovery and reconstruction for long-term development needs of Haiti be submitted as soon as possible, which makes full use of all resources, expertise and funding available from EU and Member States, takes into account Member States' contributions to multilateral bodies and clearly addresses division of labour among the EU institutions and Member States.

The Council takes note that the preliminary indications from the Commission on the financial contribution from the EU instruments to finance the longer-term response will amount to EUR 200 million. The greatest possible synergies between all components of the response in the short term and in the medium to long term must be ensured.