All Parties Say Bienvenue to Bulgaria's Commissioner Designate*

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov(L) and Kristalina Georgieva Vice-President of the World Bank. Photo by BGNES

New Europe

Described as the Commissioner with the least time to prepare, Ms Georgieva was cool, calm and collected. Haiti was the fist item on the agenda and she praised the EU Humanitarian Aid, saying that on day 1 the EU released 3 million euros and staff were working on the ground. She voiced her strong desire to represent those in dire need and for victims of sexual violence, used as a weapon of war. She said that when building camps it was important not to put women at risk and to think in gender terms about how actions could expose women to risk. She said advocacy was important but not enough. Advocacy needed to be linked with holding people to account, especially those actions of soldiers towards women in conflict.

She stressed that she needed to work with others. Her opening remarks were met with enthusiastic applause, far more than any other Commission Designate received at any stage of the hearings. She pointed out that lessons had been learned from previous disasters, including regional stockpiling of goods, but described the communication of what the EU had done as "underwhelming" and it was clear that she was trying to be polite!

Asked on the situation in Western Sahara, she said that neutrality was at the heart of humanitarian aid and there were many other instruments to put pressure on governments. Humanitarian aid needs to be blind and not allow itself to be captured by those who abuse power. Working coherently with other agencies and Commissioners was seen as a key to a successful strategy. She said there was a continual dilemma between speed and stability. Aid has to be brought quickly, but development work needs to be prioritised as soon as possible. “Every year 300 million are affected by man-made or natural disasters, and 42 million are displaced, and these numbers will go up because of climate change, rapid urbanization, and state fragility,” she explained. The Commissioner Designate also signaled that she would not support private sector involvement in aid but there was a role for the private sector in development. However, private companies should be held to account for their environmental and social responsibilities in the developing world and it was important to distinguish between those companies who had a positive impact, and the ones interested only in making profit.

Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE) mentioned her Russian language skills and experience and she said she would use her experience to work with the Russians and gave examples of her prior work with the World Bank. During the G8 she suggested to them to hold an emerging donor conference, which they did. She was asked about using blogs and Twitter. She said Twitter was great for providing headlines to journalists as it specialised in short and fast messages, and she would like to use such technologies to raise awareness of the EU humanitarian aid.

Asked if she would fight against vested interests by Nirj Deva (ECR), she replied "Yes sir", to laughter and applause, following it up by saying that she was sure other would hear her answer. Asked about the Copenhagen Summit, she replied that “The Copenhagen Summit was problematic both because it was chaotic and because the EU did not get EU seat that it was hoping to get. However, five years ago I wouldn’t hope to see 120 heads of state together, so I believe the level of awareness has gone up a great deal.”

The hearing was slightly farcical at times, as there was little time to ask questions and the Commissioner designate was frequently cut off in mid sentence, especially as she was trying to give replies in a context, without waffling. Advocating the EU response, she said that the EU brings values to development, that will enable building a better world. But, because disasters are becoming more frequent, it was important to build a better response. She approved of working with other Commissioners and Baroness Ashton as sometimes capabilities that were not part of a civil protection force and she welcomed their experience. She said the portfolio was logical because it linked aid with civil protection and she wanted to bring in regional organisations like ASEAN and the Arab League to provide regional solutions, as in the Burma floods. Pressed on the use of military aid, she said the view of the aid community was that military intervention was the last resort and they wanted to be consulted. Saying that she needed to learn more, but felt that this was a complex issue, and she wanted to work to come up with Ashton to develop policy. "It was important to have very clear principles and Europe came to these principles the hard way."

She said the current co-ordination method worked well for what it was designed for, but she wanted the member states to get on board to broaden it although some had reservations, but post-Haiti, she expected more intensive discussions and hoped it would move forward. Stressing that humanitarian aid and disaster response was at the "heart and core" of her portfolio and as an example of co-operation, she mentioned the Burma floods, where access was difficult until ASEAN was approached, who then helped workers reach the victims.

On accountability of NGO's, the EC had a system of auditing and those that didn't deliver, on the ground or in supplying accounts, were dropped. She stressed that accountability of all partners was important and that she was so concerned about this, she had spent time with auditors so she could fully understand. “My many years in development taught me a very simple but a very important lesson – no one can do it alone but together we can make a difference,” she stated. On funding, she said that there should be no blurring of lines between the neutral humanitarian objectives and said "this budget is sacred" but warned that if the number and scale of future disasters was to increase, then she would need more funding. If she had to use reserve funds in nine years out of ten, then something was wrong.

Asked by Emma McClarkin (ECR) why she wanted to be a Commissioner, she said that, "we faced an unusual situation and my fellow Bulgarians were not happy. In this case, when the call came, I thought it was my duty." She added that "Change was good and I will try to step up and I'm looking forward to it". this was met with another round of enthusiastic applause. In fact, the room was so supportive that Michael Cashman (S&D) said he was so impressed by her breadth of knowledge, her experience and cohesion, that he didn't have a question but thought the meeting should move straight on to formally confirming her. This suggestion was met by applause from all around the hall.

Her final words, reflected her confidence and her human tough, "Today is my mothers '89th birthday, normally i would have been with her, but I make one pledge to my mother. She lived through the Second World War and the division of Europe, but I never learned French and I promise her that If I am confirmed, I will try to learn French".

She'll have to get a textbook pretty quickly as all parties seemed to say "bienvenue" to this Commissioner Designate.

 

*The title has been changed by the Editorial Staff of Novinite.com

Original title: Kristalina Georgieva European Parliament Hearing Report

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