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December 26, 2004 changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Asia when they were hit by the devastating tsunami in the early hours of the morning. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Maldives were among the worst hit. As soon as the damage done by this natural disaster became known to the world, they got together to offer help in whichever way they could to affected countries. The European Union took the lead in this humanitarian cause.
Helping Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
At the extraordinary meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council on 7 January 2005, President Barroso confirmed that the Commission would commit up to 350 million euro for rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance.
Europe Aid’s Tailor-Made Asia PRO-Eco II Post Tsunami Programme
In response to the urgent need to rehabilitate areas affected, EuropeAid prepared a specific Asia Pro Eco IIB Post Tsunami Programme. The Programme was to provide funds for partnerships and capacity building project proposals, which responded to the urgent need for reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the affected regions of the Asian countries hit by the tidal wave.
Funds, disbursed through a call for proposal mechanism and projects, would be financed by up to 100 percent by the Commission. The 15 million euro available for the new programme was additional to the 10 million euro already available for the Asia Pro Eco II Programme. Selected projects could then be implemented from 6 months to 3 years, up to 2009.
The Programme provides financial support to assist urban environmental reconstruction and rehabilitation in the following areas:
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Costal zone management
- Urban/Human settlements such as environmental planning
- Waste management/sanitation
- Water management/sanitation
- Sustainable transport
- Sustainable energy
- Local implementation of international agreements relating to natural catastrophes and/or geological hazards
- Other environmentally focussed activities in line with the principle of improved environmental quality and types of interventions determined for the programme
Such topics are essential in the context of recovery and rehabilitation of badly damaged coastal communities. Permanent infrastructures for drinking water and sanitation as well as coastal management, environmental planning, energy and transport networks are the top priorities in the medium to long-term reconstruction of affected regions.
Keeping in mind the urgency of providing affected countries with adequate tools to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and to restore the livelihoods of shattered communities, EuropeAid made specific adaptations to its new programme:
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Up to 100 percent financing of the eligible costs from the EC, thus offering maximum leverage for the mobilisation of civil society partners.
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Partnerships should consist of a minimum of two partners instead of three: at least one EU partner, and at least one Asian partner from countries eligible under the ALA Regulation. This simplified arrangement should allow for faster partner identification and simplified operations.
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Project proposals must focus on the reconstruction efforts and clearly describe how they would contribute to the support of affected areas in relation to reconstruction and rehabilitation plans approved by relevant administrations.
Trade Measures
The Commission identified several trade measures aimed at improving access to the EU market for the countries affected by the tsunami. Such actions could enable these countries to expand their exports on a non-discriminatory basis, compatible with WTO obligations. In particular, the Commission worked closely with member states and the European Parliament to accelerate the entry into force of the new EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme, which would benefit all countries affected by the tsunami.
On 16 March 2005, the Commission also adopted a communication proposing to simplify preferential rules of origin and to make them more development-friendly. Under the new rules to be adopted, developing countries and in particular those affected by the tsunami would be better able to benefit from the tariff preferences that EU offers them.
The Commission, at the same time, was ready to review the cases of companies subject to EU trade defence measures where they were directly affected by the tsunami, in order to decide whether such measures could temporarily be suspended and responded to requests for trade-related assistance targeted to help businesses boost exports, for example in assisting them to comply with food safety standards.
European Investment Bank and Reconstruction
Following the destruction, the Commission and European Investment Bank (EIB) started exploring the possibility for EIB to set up a long term lending facility to help finance reconstruction efforts. In March 2005, a joint mission was undertaken to affected regions, which revealed that most of the infrastructure reconstruction of countries would be met from the unexpected high amount of available grants and highly concessional loans offered by both the public and private donor community. The EIB explored possibilities for lending to projects in tsunami-affected countries, notably for supporting SMEs in Sri Lanka and the tourism sector in the Maldives. The Commission provided grant support alongside EIB loans to jointly identified projects.
Early Warning Systems; Satellite Monitoring
To prevent such disasters in the future, the Commission has already pledged 2 million euro to the first phase of UN’s proposed tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean. And the community can also draw on a strong body of technical expertise, through the Civil Protection Mechanism, the networks built up under our Information Society and space programmes, as well as the research capabilities of the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
EU’s JRC is considering ways to extend the functionality of its existing earthquake alert tool that was developed together with ECHO, in order to also cover tsunamis. This will be done in the framework of a Global Disaster Alert System (GDAS) that will be coordinated by UN-OCHA. JRC’s work and capacities on damage assessment will also be further developed, including a tsunami crisis information service with maps and satellite images, in the context of the Global Crisis Atlas. These maps are made available through a dedicated web site to support organisations that are working in the field.
The UN Conference on disaster reduction, which took place on 18-22 January in Kobe, dedicated two sessions to the tsunami aftermath and discussed a blueprint for a tsunami early warning system and a framework of effective coordination between various partners involved in its implementation. The Commission was actively involved in the preparation of the Conference and is co-funding it through ECHO (€ 350,000). At the first tsunami session of the conference, the Commission expressed its readiness to assist in international efforts to develop early warning systems and pledged 2 million euro through ECHO to the first phase of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) proposal to establish a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean. A second session to discuss further into details of the establishment of an Indian Ocean early warning system took place on the last day of the conference.
The Commission is considering a number of early warning-related initiatives that may be deployed in the affected region. These initiatives include contributions to the establishment of an Indian Ocean geo-physical hazards competence centre, coordinating the selection and deployment of an early warning system in the Indian Ocean and managing the transfer of technologies for citizen alert and emergency response.
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