The European Union contributes 86.8 million Ethiopian Birr (2 million Euros) to UNICEF to provide nutrition support for communities affected by desert locusts in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, 15 Sept 2020 – The European Union (EU) has provided 86.8 million Ethiopian Birr (2 million Euros) to UNICEF to support vulnerable communities affected by desert locusts in the Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali and Tigray regions. The funding is being made available through the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations directorate-general (ECHO).

The support is in addition to 2.4 million Euros the EU provided to UNICEF in May 2020 to address the nutrition impact of multiple hazards such as climate-induced recurrent droughts, disease outbreaks, and internal displacements in the Afar, Somali and Oromia regions.

Due to the combined effects of desert locusts, climate change and the secondary impacts of COVID-19, UNICEF and its nutrition partners anticipate the number of children needing treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year to rise by 24 percent. Therefore, the number of children UNICEF is targeting for treatment has increased from the 460,000 children initially planned (including 16,000 refugees) to 570,000 children (of whom 18,400 are refugees).

“Children are always the most affected when livelihoods are eroded and access to food and adequate nutrition becomes a challenge,” says UNICEF Representative Adele Khodr. “We are therefore immensely grateful to the European Union for providing this funding at this critical time. It will enable us to scale up our nutrition interventions and ensure that life-saving treatment reaches the dramatically increasing number of children in need across Ethiopia.”

With the first EU funding received in May 2020, UNICEF was able to procure and distribute 30,000 cartons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food for treating 30,000 severely malnourished children in Afar, Somali and Oromia regions.

“As one of the largest humanitarian donors in the world, the EU is committed to support efforts to address urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia” says Yassine Gaba, the Head of the EU Humanitarian Aid’s office in Ethiopia. “Children are the most vulnerable during times of natural and man-made disasters, and with European help and solidarity, I am confident UNICEF will help address some of the most pressing needs.”

This latest funding will enable UNICEF to procure therapeutic foods and associated essential medicines to treat an additional 60,000 severely malnourished children. The grant will also support the warehousing and transportation of malnutrition treatment supplies to ensure they reach the last mile, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

UNICEF will also provide meals to support 3,000 caregivers of children admitted to stabilization centers.

#

Note to Editors

The current desert locust infestation is the worst in 25 years and is expected to have a significant impact on food security in Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Afar, Tigray and Somali regions. The COVID19 pandemic also poses a grave risk to the nutritional status and survival of vulnerable children.

An increase in child malnutrition is expected due to a decline in household income, challenges in the availability and affordability of nutritious food, and disruptions in accessing routine health and nutrition services. A joint assessment of the impact of the desert locust infestation on food security and livelihoods in Ethiopia conducted in April 2020 indicates that about one million individuals, including an estimated 126,000 children under five, will require emergency food assistance.

For more information, please contact:

Feven Getachew, Communication Specialist, UNICEF Ethiopia, Tel.: +251 929 241 1294, email: [email protected]

Mathias Eick, Regional Information Officer, ECHO Nairobi, Tel.: +254-722791604, email:
[email protected]

ISLAMABAD, 14 September 2020: The European Union has mobilized €5M for UNICEF to ensure availability of basic health care services for women and children in Sindh and Balochistan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This support will be provided through the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) department and reach over 1.25 million individuals in three districts in Sindh (Karachi East, Larkand) and Balochistan (Jafarabad).

The EU is working to strengthen Pakistan’s primary healthcare system and improve resilience to emergencies and disasters. The EU’s support will allow continuation of life-saving basic services and infection prevention and control measures – including increased access to water and sanitation – to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19.

In addition, frontline health workers will receive PPE’s to continue carrying out their duties. There will also be greater efforts for community mobilization & awareness, and to increase access to safe severe acute malnutrition treatment for young children in Sindh and Balochistan during the pandemic.

Healthcare providers and frontline workers will also be trained to set up telemedicine services to increase coverage and access, and frontline workers will also receive the critical psychosocial support they require during this challenging time.

Ambassador of the European Union to Pakistan, Androulla Kaminara said “Mothers and newborns are at particular risk during the pandemic. Their well-being is of paramount importance. Our support will help ensure that they continue to receive basic health services – including immunizations and nutrition treatments – in a safe environment. The EU will continue to work closely with its partners to support Pakistan’s healthcare system during this difficult time.”

This contribution to UNICEF is part of the European Union’s dedicated €150 million package for the short- and medium-term response to the COVID-19 crisis in Pakistan. This support is being extended through our development work, humanitarian aid and working with civil society organizations.

UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, Ms. Aida Girma said “In response to COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF is working closely with the Government of Pakistan, leading the Risk Communication and Community Engagement besides assisting the country in continuation of essential services including immunization, education, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and procurement of Personal Protective Equipment for frontline health workers. We are grateful to EU and ECHO for their generous contribution to this humanitarian cause. It will not only provide an impetus to our efforts but will also help Pakistan to counter the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, with a specific focus on the most vulnerable women and children.”

For further details, please contact:

Saad Yusuf Mustafa

Press and Information Officer

Delegation of the European Union to Pakistan

Phone: +92-51-227 182 8

Mobile: 0300-1101801

Email address: [email protected]

Web site: www.delpak.ec.europa.eu

Media Contacts

Abdul Sami Malik
Communication Specialist
UNICEF Pakistan
Tel: +92-300-855-6654
Tel: +92-51-209-7811

BRUSSELS The European Union demanded a more balanced trade relationship with China at a leaders summit on Monday.Heading the EU delegation was European Council President Charles Michel, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. Chinas delegation was led by President Xi Jinping.

The summit, initially due to be held in the German city of Leipzig, was being held via video conference because of restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

At a joint press conference following the summit, Michel said the EU had warned that it would not be taken advantage of where trade issues are concerned.

Europe needs to be a player, not a playing field, Michel said. We want a relationship with China that is based on reciprocity, responsibility and basic fairness.

Michel said that while in some areas the two sides are on the right track, more work needs to be done in others.

Real differences exist and we wont paper over them but we are ready to engage, ready to cooperate where we can, the former Belgian prime minister said.

The main issues discussed were climate change, economic and trade issues, international affairs and human rights, and the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic recovery.

The EU, which has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050, called on Beijing to show similar leadership in tackling the climate crisis and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of which China accounts for around 27 percent of the world total.

Michel highlighted the robust trading relationship the two sides enjoy, but insisted that Brussels wants more fairness.

We want a more balanced relationship. That means reciprocity and a level playing field, he said, pointing to Mondays signature of an agreement on Geographical Indications as a a big step in the right direction.

Ahead of the start of the summit, both sides announced a landmark agreement to protect 100 European Geographical Indications (GIs) in China and 100 Chinese GIs in the European Union against usurpation and imitation.

An EU statement said: This agreement, first concluded in November 2019, should bring reciprocal trade benefits as well as introducing consumers to guaranteed, quality products on both sides.

It reflects the commitment of the EU and China to deliver on their commitment taken at previous EU-China Summits and to adhere to international rules as a basis for trade relations.

Angela Merkel, who joined Michel for the press conference from Berlin, said the EU had applied pressure on Beijing regarding the slow progress of talks on an investment agreement, and echoed Michels insistence on securing a more balanced relationship with China.

Overall, cooperation with China must be based on certain principles reciprocity and fair competition. We are different social systems, but while we are committed to multilateralism, it must be rules-based, Merkel said.

European governments have been under increasing pressure to take a more forceful position against China over its policies in Hong Kong, where Beijing has looked to put down a pro-democracy movement with a new national security law, and in Xinjiang, where the central government has been accused of oppressing members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority and sending millions to so-called re-education camps.

Democratic voices in Hong Kong should be heard, rights protected, and autonomy preserved, Michel said, adding that the EU called on China to keep their promises to the people of Hong Kong, reiterated our concerns over Chinas treatment of minorities in Xinjiang in Tibet and the treatment of human rights defenders and journalists.

Leaders from the European Union and China have held a video summit focused on trade as both sides sought to revive a long-running investment deal despite concerns over Hong Kong and Beijing’s human rights record.

Tensions over trade, investments and minority rights overshadowed the opening of Monday’s virtual summit, the second such formal talks between EU and Chinese officials since June.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, was backed by Council President Charles Michel, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, as they sat down for tough talks with China’s President Xi Jinping.

The two sides went into the talks hoping to make progress on a long-running investment deal, which the EU hopes will allow European companies unfettered access to Chinese markets.

Unlimited trade access

Brussels says progress has been made on issues such as forced technology transfer, but still wants China to open up sectors such as telecoms, IT, health, financial services and manufacturing.

Brussels wants the same level of access to agriculture and food markets that China gave to the United States in their phase 1 trade agreement struck in January.

Earlier, they signed a deal to protect each other’s exported food and drink products.

No major breakthrough is expected though on Monday but the EU side hopes to persuade Xi to give fresh political impetus to the talks – and to allow his negotiators more room to compromise.

Moving on climate

Since they met in June, there has been some progress on issues such as climate change, with the EU hoping to secure a pledge from Beijing to bring forward the year of peak emissions to 2025 from 2030.

Brussels is also urging the world’s top polluter to commit to climate neutrality by 2060, and to stop building fossil fuel plants abroad.

China is planning to set up an emissions-trading system, which is yet to get going. Other developing nations are reluctant to move if China does not.

Human rights

The two trading partners remain at odds however over Hong Kong. The EU criticised the arrests of dozens of pro-democracy activists this year in the former British colony, including two opposition lawmakers last month.

Hong Kong activists arrested over last year’s democracy rallies

The EU was due to press Xi on Hong Kong, where Beijing has imposed a controversial new security law, a move denounced by the West as an assault on the city’s freedoms.

Europeans have also called China out over its treatment of minority Uighurs.

Several members of the European Parliament wrote a letter ahead of the summit urging EU officials to “meaningfully address” China’s human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong.

One of the signatories was French MEP Raphael Glucksmann, who urged Angela Merkel and Von der Leyen to adopt a strong European stance in response to the “deportation” of more than one million Muslims to detainment camps in theXinjiang region.

“Will this crime against humanity be just another footnote?” he wrote on Twitter.

Disinformation campaign

The EU has also faced pressure from the United States to take a tougher stance on China.

Recent visits of US and China officials to Europe show that both care about how the EU positions itself. The bloc does not want to become a battleground between the two powers, needing both and reluctant to alienate either.

Brussels has preferred a middle path, treating Beijing as both a potential partner and a “systemic rival”.

The coronavirus pandemic has also created new obstacles, notably what Brussels sees as a China-orchestrated campaign of disinformation about the disease to deflect blame from the health crisis.

Beijing has been accused of trying to influence European officials, and foreign policy chief Borrell has twice denied this year that the External Action Service – a kind of EU foreign office that he leads – has bowed to pressure from Beijing to alter documents. China has denied any wrongdoing.

Orginally published on RFI

BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) — Leaders of China, Germany and European Union (EU) on Monday agreed to strengthen communication and cooperation to ensure the success of the upcoming series of major political agenda between China and the EU, enhance mutual trust, seek mutual benefits on a win-win basis and uphold multilateralism, vowing to bring the ties up to a higher level.

That came as Chinese President Xi Jinping co-hosted a China-Germany-EU leaders’ meeting Monday evening in Beijing via video link with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The leaders announced the official signing of the China-EU agreement on geographical indications (GI), stated their commitment to speeding up the negotiations of the China-EU Bilateral Investment Treaty to achieve the goal of concluding the negotiations within this year, decided to establish a China-EU High Level Environment and Climate Dialogue and a China-EU High Level Digital Cooperation Dialogue, and to forge China-EU green and digital partnerships.

Xi pointed out the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating changes unseen in a century, and mankind is standing at a new crossroad faced with multiple common challenges. It is only more imperative for China and the EU, as two major forces, markets and civilizations, to firmly grasp the general trend of mutual support and united cooperation in face of such situations, unswervingly promote the sound and stable development of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, to inject more positive energy into COVID-19 response efforts, economic recovery and championing justice, Xi said.

Xi proposed four principles the two sides should adhere to for developing China-EU relationship.

First, China and the EU should adhere to peaceful coexistence. As there are no identical political systems in the world, the coexistence of multiple civilizations represents the normalcy. “The more firm the strength underpinning China-EU peaceful coexistence, the more guaranteed the world peace and prosperity,” Xi said.

Second, China and the EU should adhere to openness and cooperation. China is working toward the goal of fostering a new, dual-cycle development architecture with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and with domestic and international development reinforcing each other. “China will seek better interconnectivity and effectiveness between the two markets and resources on the two sides, to promote common development in a more robust and sustainable way,” said Xi.

Third, China and the EU should adhere to multilateralism. Xi stressed China is ready to work with the EU to step up dialogue and coordination at bilateral, regional and global levels, stay committed to a global governance outlook featuring consultation, contribution and shared benefit, defend the international order and system with the United Nations at the core, promote the political settlements of international and regional hot-spot issues.

Fourth, China and the EU should adhere to dialogue and consultation. “China and the EU need to stay committed to the mainstream of cooperation, resolve misunderstanding through dialogue, overcome difficulties through development and properly manage differences.”

Noting China and Europe are important trade and investment partners to each other, Xi said the two sides should step up macro-policy coordination, take more measures and unleash more cooperation opportunities.

Noting the agreement on GI was officially signed on Monday, Xi said the two sides should adopt a positive and pragmatic attitude, speed up negotiations on the China-EU investment agreement to achieve the goal of completing the negotiations by the end of this year, working to upgrade cooperation, facilitate the post-epidemic world economic recovery and jointly safeguard an open trade and investment environment.

“The Chinese market remains open to the EU. More high-quality and safe EU agricultural products are welcome to enter China,” Xi said.

“The two sides should forge China-EU green partnerships,” Xi said, adding that the two sides need to participate constructively in the global multilateral process of tackling climate change and protecting global biodiversity, support each other in running the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow next year and promoting the 15th Conference of the Parties of the convention on biodiversity in Kunming to achieve positive results, and contribute to global sustainable development.

The two sides need to forge China-EU digital partnerships, Xi said, adding that China has put forward its global initiative on data security, and hopes that the EU will work with China to formulate standards and rules of the global digital field and promote the sound development of global governance in digital economy.

Xi said the two sides should properly address each other’s legitimate concerns, adding that China follows closely the recent developments of the EU in 5G, foreign investment review, government procurement and competition policy.

Xi expressed the hope that the EU will keep its trade and investment market open, foster an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment and protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and the EU have maintained close contacts in anti-pandemic and global health cooperation, demonstrating the significance and global impact of China-EU relations, Xi said.

For the next step, the two sides should strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination and cooperation, maintain the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain, and jointly promote the recovery of the world economy, Xi said.

Xi called for strengthening vaccine research and development cooperation, to strive for making vaccines universally available global public goods, and fully accommodate the availability and affordability of the vaccines in developing countries.

Personnel exchanges must be resumed in an orderly manner, and the cross-border movement of goods should be facilitated, Xi said.

Xi urged actively carrying out tripartite cooperation with Africa on the basis of full respect for African countries’ will, calling on the international community, especially multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors, to take stronger actions on debt relief in Africa.

Xi also clarified China’s principled position on Hong Kong-related and Xinjiang-related issues, saying that the essence of the issues is to safeguard China’s national sovereignty, security and unity, and to protect the rights of people of all ethnic groups to live and work in peace.

“China firmly opposes any person or force creating instability, division and chaos in China, and meddling in China’s internal affairs by any country,” Xi stressed.

“There is no one-size-fits-all path to human rights development in the world. There is no best way, only the better one,” Xi stressed, adding that countries should priorly handle their own things.

Chinese people will not accept “an instructor” on human rights and oppose “double standards”. China is willing to strengthen exchanges with the European side based on the principle of mutual respect so that the two sides can both make progress, said Xi.

For their parts, Merkel, Michel and von der Leyen said China is an important strategic partner respected by the EU. It is imperative for Europe and China to strengthen cooperation, jointly safeguard multilateralism, resist unilateralism and protectionism, and respond more effectively to various global challenges, which is in line with the common interests of both Europe and China and the international community.

The EU is willing to work with China to strengthen dialogue, promote mutual trust, and push cooperation in the fields including economy and trade, investment, green economy, climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable development for more achievements.

The European side was encouraged by the signing of the agreement on GI, welcomed China relaxing market access restrictions, expanding opening up, pledging to concluding the EU-China investment agreement negotiations within this year to inject new impetus into EU-China relations.

The European side is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in international organizations, promote anti-pandemic international cooperation, maintain free trade, and promote the economic recovery in Europe, China as well as the world at an early date.

On the human rights issue, the European side admitted its problems and expressed the hope to conduct dialogue with China based on the principles of equality and mutual respect to enhance mutual understanding and handle their differences properly.

The leaders also exchanged views on international and regional issues including the Afghanistan and the Iranian nuclear issues, agreeing to strengthen communication and coordination and to make joint efforts in maintaining international and regional security and stability.