mr president i am sure the house would like to remember the missing un and eu staff and all of those who are missing and suffering in haiti at this time
i am also glad that commissioner de gucht is going there and that he will report to the committee on development when he returns on monday
that is a very welcome development
to use his own terms the nature of the impact is unprecedented and i think that that is a fair point to make in a country of this kind which is why and i mention this just in passing i really do think that the european union has to be more visible
now that we have a high representative who is a vice-president of the commission that person must be more visible on issues of this kind
the european union is the biggest aid donor in the world donating sixty of aid and we are probably the biggest donor of humanitarian aid as well
but while one sees the us hospital ships there all we see from the eu is member states going in from belgium and ireland and britain or wherever
there should be some visible eu presence
why not battle groups
why not some standing groups on a rotating basis who would be ready to go into the area when these sort of things occur
the last thing i want to say is that what has happened in haiti is grounded in poverty and when this terrible tragedy eases and it goes off the screens let us not forget haiti
it is time to tackle the underlying poverty situation in haiti once and for all
