Check against delivery! 

President, Honourable Members,

Almost three years after the assassination of President Moise, the multi-layered crisis in Haiti’s rages on. We read with concern the latest report by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, about rampant insecurity, the strength of armed gangs and the limited capacity of State institutions to restore security and rule of law.  

The capacity of gangs to gather large quantities of arms and ammunition is of particular concern, and violent incidents, including killings, kidnappings and sexual violence, persist with alarming impunity.  

There is an urgent need to take action to stop the illegal proliferation of firearms and ammunitions in the country. This is an area where the European Union is willing to continue offering its support to Haiti, and other Caribbean countries facing similar challenges.  

Innocent citizens continue to pay the highest price. A chronic security, economic and political crisis, exacerbated by natural catastrophes, has led to the current humanitarian crisis in Haiti. Today, more than 40 per cent of the Haitian population suffers from acute food insecurity. Recurrent cholera outbreaks continue to claim numerous victims.  

The Haitian state cannot be left alone in its fight against the gangs and the multi-fold crises the country needs to address. Haiti’s international partners, including the UN, have a crucial role to play.  

The resolution of the UN Security Council, passed on 2 October last year, authorising a Multinational Security Mission in support of Haiti, to be led by Kenya, was an important and long overdue breakthrough. The same Resolution indicates the need to create effective accountability mechanisms to protect human rights and to avoid the mistakes made during the previous UN-led mission, MINUSTAH, which ended in 2017. 

The EU has taken note of the recent ruling of Kenya’s High Court on the proposed deployment of Kenyan police to lead the mission. We are awaiting with interest the response of the Kenyan government to enable the mission to proceed. 

The European Union will continue to provide support for Haiti’s stability, development, and better integration in the Caribbean region. Our cooperation and humanitarian envelope for Haiti is, by far, the largest in the Americas. Despite the many difficulties in implementing our programmes, the European Union remains committed to play its part alongside our international partners. And we will continue supporting the broader objectives of a Multinational Support Mission, once it is deployed. Restoring stability and supporting governance both indirectly through our cooperation instruments and directly through our support for the Haitian National Police. 

Alongside the security track, it is important to continue pursuing a political solution to take the country out of the current crisis.  

We welcome the active involvement of regional organisations, particularly the CARICOM and the Organisation of American States, supporting a Haitian-led political solution, built on the basis of a constructive dialogue between the government and the opposition. 

Unfortunately, we regret to see how the Haitian parties have failed to come together around a credible solution to the current institutional impasse. 

Haitians deserve better than this. We urge, therefore, the main political stakeholders to engage in a genuine dialogue and renew their efforts to find an effective compromise, with the ultimate goal to prepare the country for credible and inclusive elections once security conditions will allow. 

Thank you.  

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-252483  

Closing remarks  

President, Members, 

Thank you for the debate. The atmosphere is somber, I would say, because of what is going on and also a bit of negative feeling I can detect in all the speakers. 

At the last Summit we had, the EU-CELAC Summit, the European Union and the partner countries in Latin America and the Caribbean agreed on the need to support Haiti in tackling the dire humanitarian crisis and in paving the way towards security and stabilisation.  

For countries like Haiti, the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons is at the origin of the strength of the gangs and is detrimental to the achievement of sustainable peace, security and socioeconomic development including in the rest of the region.  

Therefore, the Summit Declaration included specific provisions on the fight against illicit arms trafficking, which is instrumental to curb domestic and transnational organised crime, drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, money-laundering, the illegal exploitation of natural resources and domestic violence.  

In the same Declaration, we also stressed the need to consolidate and strengthen the EU-CELAC cooperation initiatives in the field of citizen security and social justice, such as the EU-LAC Partnership on Justice and Security. On these themes, the European Union is ready to do its part.  

Regarding the participation to the Multinational Security Intervention (MSSM in Haiti), I should remind you that the European Union could consist of actions that could support the mission indirectly, notably with complementary actions that can provide an enabling environment for the work of the mission or upheld the sustainability of its results. Prospects for a direct EU contribution in terms of equipment and personnel would depend directly on the readiness of the EU Member States to contribute. In any case, we should stress that the European Union is already providing significant and indirect support to the Security and Defence Forces, through the European Peace Facility to increase their capability in order to participate in peacekeeping operations – and we hope this is the case now. 

So, thank you very much for the debate. 

President, that is all. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-252485