A - France is determined to continue and to strengthen its efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian refugees. As the minister indicated yesterday at the UN Security Council meeting that he chaired, France will continue – on top of its actions at the national level – to campaign for increased European humanitarian assistance. It urges all donors to mobilize their efforts.

The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, publicly expressed, on 29 August, her support for the initiative proposed by the French presidency of the UN Security Council.

On this occasion, she stated that the EU and its Member States had already mobilized €146 million in humanitarian assistance, which accounts for more than 41% of the total amount of resources mobilized. This amount is due in part to the decision made at the Foreign Affairs Council on July 23, 2012, to double the level of European emergency relief funding.

This funding will be further increased, notably in order to take into consideration France’s recent decision – announced yesterday in New York by the minister of foreign affairs – to mobilize, in addition to its indirect contribution within the framework of the EU, an additional €5 million in humanitarian assistance at the national level. This will bring the level of national and bilateral French assistance to €8.6 million, to which we should of course add the contribution pledged by France within the framework of European assistance.