Thursday, 16 May - The disaster in Bangladesh causing 125,000 deaths and leaving more than ten million people homeless led to Parliament adopting a resolution which calls on the Commission to draw up, as a matter of urgency, a 40m ECU aid programme. MEPs want the Community to help with the management of river basins in Bangladesh and to provide assistance for reafforestation.

George Stevenson (Staffordshire East, Soc) criticised the Council for being too slow in agreeing its aid package.

In addition to providing emergency aid, the Community should help with the long--term development of the country and the construction of flood prevention schemes, he added, and he called for a proper coordination of development aid.

John Cushnahan (Munster, EPP) thought there should be more efficient monitor-ing of relief efforts, while Paddy Lane (Munster, EDA) felt reserves of food should be built up to address short-term problems as well as more permanent action to give famine hit countries the ability to produce their own food.

In reply, Commissioner Manuel Marin admitted that the scale of the disasters in Bangladesh and Africa were beyond the resources of the Commission, but he assured the House that everything humanly possible was being done. 10m ECU of emergency EC aid had already been given for Bangladesh, he said, and he confirmed that the Council of Ministers had agreed to a further 60m ECU, but it was not clear how this would be finannced, he added.

He concluded that the EC's budgetary and institutional procedures were no longer adequate to deal with disasters and he suggested the creation of a 'European Agency for Humanitarian Aid' with full logistical support. In answer to MEP's concerns, he admitted that it was not possible to give cast--iron guarantees that aid always got to those it was intended for. In difficult political situations, this was the reality, he said.