BRUSSELS: EU envoys yesterday praised US efforts to halt a deadly jihadist advance across huge parts of Iraq as the European Commission boosted aid to help desperate civilians in the war-torn country.
The envoys met during an extraordinary meeting in Brussels in an effort to better coordinate the response by member states to a crisis the EU’s executive called the world’s most pressing emergency.
“EU member states welcomed the efforts by the US and partners to stop the Islamic State advance and facilitate access for humanitarian support,” a statement from the EU foreign service said at the end of the meeting.
The talks were urgently assembled after key EU powers Italy and France earlier in the week demanded bolder EU action on Iraq.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius yesterday made a forceful proposal that colleagues cut short vacations to decide measures, including military ones, to aid Kurdish Iraqis fighting off the Islamic State onslaught.
But though the post-meeting statement said there was unanimous agreement on the need for urgent and increased humanitarian support, there was no call for a foreign minister meeting which would be needed for any major coordinated action by bloc countries.
EU sources told AFP that even though member states were open to assembling ministers in the heart of summer, with divisions wide over whether the bloc as a whole should expressly support the arming of Iraqi forces, the decision was delayed for now. In the statement, the EU external service, which is headed by Catherine Ashton, said only that meeting participants “noted the urgent request by the Kurdish regional authorities to certain member states for military support”, while “stressing the importance of coordination with international partners” on the matter.
Earlier, EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva announced the boost to the EU’s aid to Iraq, though she stressed access, not funds, was the real challenge.
With the increase, aid to Iraq from Brussels now totals ¤17m for the year.
AFP
