Polish Presidency and EC work together to aid Horn of Africa

 
‘I should like to thank the Polish Presidency. The Polish minister in charge of cooperation for development travelled with me and that was a very good occasion for the European Union to confront the difficult situation in the Horn of Africa region together,’ said Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
 
Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Krzysztof Stanowski, and Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, have travelled to the Horn of Africa, a region afflicted by famine. During the visit, the Polish Presidency representative visited Dabaab, the world’s biggest refugee camp in eastern Kenya.
 
‘The Polish Presidency should continue to play the leading role it has played so far as regards the question of aid at the European level,’ she noted. The issue of starvation in the Horn of Africa has been raised at the informal EU Council for Development, held in Sopot on 14^th-15^th July, as well as at the conference of the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), held in Poland’s parliament on 27^th July. In order to further coordinate the European Union’s efforts, Poland, which currently holds the EU Council Presidency, has called for Monday a meeting of the working groups for humanitarian aid to be attended by major humanitarian organisations such as UNICEF and the International Red Cross Committee. ‘That is very important… The point is to provide aid to some 11 million people scattered over an extremely wide area. That will be possible only if we act in a coordinated manner,’ emphasised Kristalina Georgieva.
 
The European Commission has pledged humanitarian aid to the tune of €160 million for that region.