The third edition of the European Humanitarian Forum concluded in Brussels, co-organized by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the EU. At the Forum, EU Member States together with the European Commission announced the planned humanitarian funding of more than €7.7 billion for 2024, as a concrete expression of global solidarity and of the EU’s leading role in humanitarian action.
In particular, the EU and Member States committed to taking action in addressing conflict and preserving humanitarian space, notably in the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip. EU ministers expressed grave concern regarding the current humanitarian situation in the Strip and called for rapid, unhindered, safe, and continued humanitarian access to the people in need.
”At this year’s European Humanitarian Forum, when we are marking record high humanitarian needs, the European Commission and EU Member States jointly announced the humanitarian funding of over €7.7 billion for 2024. This is a solid initial pledge for this year, reflecting both global solidarity and the EU’s outstanding position in humanitarian action. At the same time, to prevent the collapse of international humanitarian system, the humanitarian community brought together at this Forum, clearly stressed the urgent need for sustainable and fair funding of humanitarian action, increased respect of International Humanitarian Law as well as joined-up action, matching emergency assistance with development and peace efforts to help the mostly forgotten vulnerable communities break free from the cycle of fragility and dependency, ”Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management.
The participants also focused on promoting compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) globally in the armed conflicts and welcomed the announcement of an independent, non-governmental initiative named “IHL in Focus”. Concretely, this initiative will establish a yearly analysis of current armed conflicts and related IHL violations to contribute to setting out the state of compliance with IHL across the world.
The forum gathered over 1400 representatives from across the humanitarian community, EU Member States, and beyond who took part in strategic discussions to jointly propose sustainable solutions to the complex humanitarian challenges.
