Watch the recording of this webinar on YouTube.

Added to the already enormous challenges faced by the humanitarian system and its constituent parts (proliferation of conflicts and non-state actors, climate stress, mass migration, and more), the global Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with repeated assaults on the basic tenets of multilateralism, have brought existing systems to a breaking point .

Traditional principled humanitarian positioning has fallen short of engaging with or addressing nefarious global political trends with dramatic consequences. The result has been inequitable access to life-saving support for those who need it most, risk transfer , and an overall reduced capacity for aid agencies to meet growing challenges.

A paradigm shift is needed. The newly published Communication of the European Commission on humanitarian aid is an opportunity to clarify perimeters, reaffirm with force the authority of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and take the measure of how much the EU can leverage support to strengthen principled humanitarian action across the world. It should set the frame to address structural tensions that require more thinking and interactions and create at EU level a space for dialogue.

To hear more about the future frame of EU humanitarian aid, discuss its main orientations, and assess how the Communication is preparing to meet these unprecedented challenges, please join a high-level discussion with:

Speakers: 

•         Mr. Janez Lenarcic, EU Commissioner for Crisis Response
•         Mrs. Michèle Rivasi, Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
•         Mr. Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council

The discussion will be facilitated by Mr. Jean-Louis De Brouwer, Director European Affairs Programme, Egmont institute.

Participants should register by 14 April.
The Zoom Webinar – link will be sent at a later date.

(Photo credit: EESC.eu)