EU upstaged in Pakistan relief effort?
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As the UN calls for more aid for flood-stricken Pakistan, critics have claimed that the Taliban are proving more generous than some EU countries. And questions are also being raised about the bloc's failure to get its much-discussed disaster reaction force off the drawing board.
While Pakistan grapples with its worst floods in years, the aid is slowly trickling in. But the UN issued a warning yesterday that with millions at risk from water-borne diseases a "second wave of death" will hit the country unless more aid materialises.
The EU has already donated €40 million and more aid may be in the pipeline. European Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny defended the bloc's record yesterday, saying that it has been "the most generous donor" and the "first donor to help".
But many wonder if Europe is doing enough, given the scale of the disaster. The aid organisation Oxfam said at the weekend that the EU "can afford to be much more generous," while the UK - the former colonial power in Pakistan - also worried about a "lamentable" response from the international community
On a country-by-country basis an unflattering comparison has been drawn between the level of aid pledged by the Taliban - €16 million - and one of Europe's richest countries, Germany, which has offered €10 million.
Meanwhile, the disaster also prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy to write to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso calling for the creation of an EU rapid reaction force - something that was widely mooted after the Haiti earthquake earlier this year.
The commission spokesman responded by saying that Kristalina Georgieva, the commissioner responsible for aid and crisis response, is already working on plans for such a force that should be ready by the end of summer.
