2015. 07. 09.
Relating to the report on the security challenges in the Middle East and North Africa, adopted on Thursday by the EP, the Hungarian MEP pointed out that churches and their relief organizations operate best practice projects in the areas threatened by Da’esh and are able to directly reach the ones in greatest need. The MEP expressed its appreciation for the Union taking the lead in providing assistance to the people displaced by the jihadists. At the same time he expressed his regrets that the current EU aid procedures hinder the direct cooperation of churches within the European institutions’ relief projects.
Mr Hölvényi highlighted current examples of relief projects of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Northern Iraq, taking responsibility for hundreds of thousands of refugees in Northern Iraq or the humanitarian work of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Syria. All these activities are mostly carried out from own resources and international donations. According to Mr Hölvényi, without the direct aid provided by the Christian relief organizations on the spot, the humanitarian crisis caused by the rise of extremist Islam in the Middle East would have turned into an even more serious social disaster.
"We cannot afford that the most gravely affected communities are left out from resolving the situation. There is an urgent need for common thinking of EU decision-makers in order to overcome this humanitarian crisis in partnership with the local communities,” concluded György Hölvényi.