The complex coordination of the European Union Humanitarian Aid

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make an approach to the coordination of the European Union’s operations in the field of humanitarian aid, mainly from an international legal and practical perspective. The factors that justify the choice of this research are the increased in humanitarian needs caused by natural or man-made disasters and the limitations of resources to address them, together with the fact that the EU, through ECHO, and Member States have become the world's leading donors of humanitarian aid. Within this framework, we focus on the coordination of the different international subjects and actors (States, UN agencies and NGOs), as well as on the complex interaction of this aid with other actions and policies developed by the EU with link purposes in the same geographical areas, including the European civil protection mechanism, the development to cooperation, stability instruments and increased military and civil defense capacities in the context of the common foreign and security policy. This combination of various actions blurs the legal commitment to implement the humanitarian principles of international law.