Date of release : 31-01-2005

Policy area : General Affairs and External Relations

Event : General Affairs and External Relations Council

During the 31 January 2005 meeting of the "General Affairs and External Relations Council," Jean Asselborn, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration and President in Office of the Council of the European Union, in the presence of the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Jean-Louis Schiltz, introduced an action plan to coordinate all the initiatives that the European Union and its Members States are to take to assist the people and countries of southeast Asia devastated by the tsunami of 26 December 2004.

The Luxembourg Presidency stated that "the main goal of this action plan is to better coordinate all the resources available at every level and in every area (analysis, resource planning, operations management, prevention, etc.), to deal effectively with the consequences of such events today and in the future."

Minister Asselborn also said that "this action plan thus takes stock of the short-term actions in the affected regions, in particular with regard to the mobilisation of budget and financial resources and the strengthening of the action already under way in the field (humanitarian aid and military assets), as well as in reconstruction efforts over the medium term."

According to the Presidency, the action plan "also outlines possible actions to address this type of disaster or similar disasters, inside or outside the Union, from the standpoint of a better use of existing instruments, possibilities for developing a rapid response capacity for the Union (planning, coordinating and resource mobilisation structure), stronger consular cooperation in favour of the citizens of Europe, and finally, the role that projects such as the creation of a European volunteer humanitarian assistance corps could play."

Luxembourg’s Minister for Foreign Affairs invited his European counterparts to the session of 25 and 26 April 2005, in order to assess the situation of this dossier in the presence of European ministers for development cooperation.