Global General

EU to send up to 350 police to Haiti

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-26 00:12

BRUSSELS: The European Union agreed on Monday to send up to 350 paramilitary police to Haiti in response to a UN call for help to protect the earthquake relief effort.

EU foreign ministers also agreed to set up an office in Brussels to coordinate military and security contributions to the relief effort by the 27 EU states.

The ministers were responding to a United Nations call for personnel after the world body announced it was adding 2,000 troops and 1,500 police to its 9,000-strong mission in Haiti.

EU officials said ministers had agreed member states would provide 300-350 paramilitary and Carabinieri-style police. Most will come from an EU gendarmerie force established by France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and Romania.

Last week the bloc said EU institutions and member states had offered more than 400 million euros ($575.6 million) in emergency and longer-term aid to Haiti after the quake, which Haitian authorities say may have killed 200,000 people.

The EU ministers also endorsed a proposal to establish a European Volunteer Corps aimed at involving young people in aid efforts such as that in Haiti. Ministers agreed the corps should be established by 2011.