Brussels (Alliance News) - National governments may be asked to provide additional funds to Brussels after a top official warned Tuesday that the EU has already spent a third of this year's humanitarian aid budget.
The bloc has committed a total of 911 million euros (1.3 billion dollars) in aid for 2014, the highest amount yet, Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva told the European Parliament.
But part of the budget had to be used to cover 160 million euros in arrears from 2013. The commissioner predicted that a top-up of 400 million euros will now be necessary for this year, with 150 million euros likely to be needed by July.
"For the first time ever, the humanitarian community is dealing with four ... highest-level emergencies simultaneously - Syria, the Philippines, Central African Republic and South Sudan. And unfortunately, we have no reason to expect that in the future this would be a one-off," Georgieva told lawmakers.
The EU is already making plans for possible needs in unrest-hit Ukraine, Georgieva said, although the hope is that "Ukraine never becomes a humanitarian crisis."
Copyright dpa
