EU to hold ministerial tsunami aid meeting

EU to hold ministerial tsunami aid meeting

Reuters, Brussels

European Union foreign ministers will meet on Friday to co-
ordinate efforts to help victims of the Asian tsunami, EU
president Luxembourg said, raising the status of a previously
planned informal gathering.

Foreign, development and health ministers from the 25-nation
bloc will meet to discuss the EU's humanitarian aid and relief
pledges to the Indian Ocean states ravaged by the killer wave on
Dec. 26.

They will also discuss how to improve EU disaster relief and
prepare for a UN donor meeting in Geneva on Jan. 11.

"I'm not expecting any new pledges tomorrow," a senior
Luxembourg diplomat told a news conference on Thursday.

"We will try and take stock of what is on the table both from
the member states and from the European Union and see then how we
can organize both the logistics and the finances."

At a one-day international summit in the Indonesian capital
Jakarta on Thursday, the EU's executive Commission pledged 350
million euros (US$463.1 million) in reconstruction aid over three
years and an extra 100 million euros in humanitarian aid.

The EU aid contribution to the region stands at $1.99 billion
excluding private donations. More than 150,000 people were killed
and 1.5 million people were left homeless in the killer wave.

Both Germany and Luxembourg support the creation of
partnerships between cities and regions in Europe and Asia to
help with reconstruction efforts. Berlin has said it wants EU
ministers to discuss the idea at Friday's meeting.

The EU is also mulling the creation of a standing aid corps
which could be urgently sent to a disaster zone, another proposal
likely to be debated on Friday, but the Luxembourg diplomat said
no decisions were expected.