ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ: ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΣΤΟ ΠΕΔΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΦΥΓΙΚΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

Maria Daniella Marouda 53 an EU humanitarian aid policy initially built as an external policy to support third countries. Unchartered waters, interesting innovations addressing solidarity in practical terms or yet another firework to avoid more substantial fair sharing of responsibilities within the EU? 2.2. EU humanitarian aid policy before 2016 through ECHO Humanitarian aid in the EU was initially provided in the framework of relations within ACP (African, Caribbean and the Pacific) without an explicit legal basis in the treaties 26 . The Humanitarian Office (ECHO) was created in 1991 to identify shared ideas, through a somewhat fragmented set of funding programs and re- sources that complemented national ones. As a Coordinating Office it contributed gradually to the creation of a distinct EU humanitarian aid external policy, albeit with weak political and legal foundations 27 . Even when the Council adopted a spe- cific Regulation on humanitarian aid (1257/96), it still lacked an independent trea- ty basis, and had to follow the better-established EU developmental policy, cre- ating a confusion that still challenges the humanitarian nature of its mandate 28 . Throughout the 90s ECHO failed to operate as a truly independent structure within the European Commission. The situation largely improved when ECHO became in 2004 a separate Directorate and when a new mechanism of Framework Part- nership Agreement (FPA) was established to further enhance -with an increased budget- humanitarian aid 29 . Through the FPAs, ECHO funds humanitarian actors, essential for the implementation of its projects. Actual independence was only achieved though when the mandate on humanitarian aid was inserted in a sepa- rate Lisbon Treaty provision and then in December 2007, when the European Con- sensus on humanitarian aid was adopted as a Joint Statement of the Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States 30 . 26. See Farrel, M. Bridging the Gap between EU, Mediterranean and Africa relations: Partnership, Governance and (Re)-evolving Relations Dans L’Europe en Formation 2010/2 (n° 356), pages 169 à 191. 27. Marouda M.D., Humanitarian Space: For a Legal and Effective Humanitarian Action, I. Sideris Publishers, 2012 (hereafter Marouda 2012) 28. On the differences of humanitarian versus developmental assistance, see Marouda 2012, supra 29. Partnership Agreements are signed for a period of 7 years and therefore humanitarian partners can be deployed immediately following a crisis, with minimum bureaucracy, see relevant info on https://ec.europa.eu/echo/partnerships/humanitarian-partners_ en 30. Marouda M.D ., 2012 and for more recent developments Van Elsuwege P., Orbie J., Bois- sun F (eds), Humanitarian Aid Policy in the EU’s External Relations in the Post Lisbon Framework, Stockholm, SIEPS, vol.3, 2016.