Only the EU could survey the devastation suffered by the Haitian people and make it all about them. With as many as 200,000 people estimated to have died and a second powerful earthquake hitting the country this morning, the EU has thrown itself into a spat with the United States, with the French Cooperation Minister accusing the U.S. of “occupying Haiti,” during an EU meeting in Brussels. No mention of the fact that while U.S. soldiers are clearing the airport for aid deliveries, flying orphans to the U.S., and have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton coordinating the American response as the government’s highest priority, EU officials are safely ensconced in their cozy Brussels’ offices drinking lattes and bemoaning American quickness.
MEP’s have been even more vitriolic, telling EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton that her lack of visibility in Haiti is a devastating blow for the credibility of the EU – despite the fact that she herself acknowledged that she would be more of a hindrance than a help in Haiti right now (perhaps the only moment of lucidity displayed by Mrs. Ashton to date). Liberal French MEP Marielle de Sarnez told Mrs. Ashton: “politics is above all about symbols, and that is why I don’t think you should be here, but in Haiti.” The rest of the world however, thinks it’s about saving lives.
To be fair to the MEP’s holding Mrs. Ashton to account for her £270,000 annual salary, they were right that she should have at least stayed in Brussels to coordinate EU action instead of taking off for London this weekend to tuck into her Sunday roast as normal.
Whether it be MEP’s, the European Commission or French ministers, the EU has done the unthinkable and managed to frame this humanitarian crisis in its pointless and relentless obsession with bashing America. However, it is the desperate hand-written signs of Haitians themselves saying, “welcome America” that tell the real story: if you find yourself in the poorest and most vulnerable situation on earth, it is the stars and stripes that you want to see coming over the horizon; not the EU’s crown of thorns.
