EU Crisis Management: A Humanitarian Perspective

The many developments that have taken place within the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy are changing the way the EU can respond to crisis situations in third countries. New crisis management capabilities which include humanitarian tasks in their mandates can at best be complementary to humanitarian aid as delivered by ECHO. At worst, they can threaten or undermine the apolitical nature of EU humanitarian aid. This paper will attempt to: • Give an overview of ECHO and EU crisis management capabilities • Raise awareness among humanitarian actors and draw their attention to the possible implications of new crisis management mechanisms for EU humanitarian aid - in particular the risk of politicisation of aid.