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Torsdag den 5. juli 2018 - Strasbourg

7.6. Retningslinjer til medlemsstaterne med henblik på at forhindre, at humanitær bistand kriminaliseres (B8-0314/2018)

Ústní vysvětlení hlasování

  Andrejs Mamikins (S&D). – Mr President, I voted in favour of this report, which I deem to be very timely. Humanitarian assistance as such should never be criminalised. The EU is bound to protect those in humanitarian need. This is one of the main elements of our soft power. The Commission is the third biggest donor of humanitarian aid after the United States of America and Germany. We need to keep this flag high and not allow our efforts to be diminished. But I call for major operation cooperation and coordination between actors providing humanitarian assistance and the competent authorities.

Humanitarian assistance, like any matter which involves financial resources, is subject to criminalisation. While we can guarantee accountability and transparency on the part of the Commission, we cannot fully guarantee the same from the NGOs that are our partners. Therefore, we need to monitor the enforcement and effective practical application of the Facilitators Package by collecting and recording annually information on the number of people arrested for facilitation.