The Justice and Home Affairs Ministry is calling on civilians willing to provide assistance in disasters or crises in other countries to come forward as part of Malta's contribution to the EU's civilian crisis management operations.
The ministry's permanent secretariat said yesterday the areas where national contributions are being requested are:
Monitoring in the areas of human rights, confidence building measures and others, including election monitoring;
civil protection in the areas of natural disasters, medical and fire fighting;
civilian administration in the areas of civil registration, issuance of documents and
others (generic);
support to EU senior representatives in the areas of administration support and others (generic) and rule of law in the areas of administration services and others (generic).
The secretariat said that for Malta to be a credible European Security and Defence Policy (ESPD) player and partner, it was seeking to be more engaged in areas where it can actively make a contribution.
It believes it can build on its recent experiences in election monitoring - Palestinian elections - and civil protection - emergency relief, medical operations and reconstruction in Sri Lanka following the tsunami disaster.
The contribution of member states to the EU's civilian crisis management operations have assumed primary importance with the Civilian Headline Goal 2008, endorsed at the European Council in December last year and which the Union is reviewing.
The previous June, EU foreign ministers at the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC), agreed on an action plan for civilian aspects of the ESDP.
Work on capabilities culminated in a civilian capabilities conference in November. In preparation for this conference, the council circulated two questionnaires asking member states to provide an indication of the human resources they could pledge for civilian crisis management operations. The first questionnaire focused on the police, rule of law, civilian administration, monitoring and generic support to the EU special representatives' offices.
The second dealt with civil protection. Malta made a voluntary commitment of two police officers - currently serving in Bosnia Herzegovina - to the overall capabilities.
The secretariat said the costs related to civilian crisis management operations, including a daily allowance, are covered by the common foreign and security budget.
Last January, the council secretariat put forward proposals on a number of steps to be taken this year to achieve the EU's objectives in civilian ESDP by 2008.
These include the elaboration of a detailed capability requirement list - both in quantitative and qualitative terms and an assessment of national contributions to the civilian capabilities requirement list together with that of the identification of capability shortfalls.
The February GAERC endorsed an EU mission in the framework of the ESDP to help bolster the new interim Iraqi administration's capabilities in the area of law and order by instituting training programmes outside Iraq.
Member states were asked to inform of their willingness to provide trainers and/or training facilities. Malta, the secretariat said, is not participating in this mission.
It said the Asian tsunami in December spurred the EU to quicken the pace of its work in the area of civil crisis response and put in place mechanisms that would enable the rapid deployment of people and means to respond to natural disasters.
It should be recalled, the secretariat said, that Malta not only contributed generously to the relief effort following the flood disaster but also engaged on a long-term basis with medical and logistics teams on the ground in Sri Lanka.