No aid from the EU

The Letter below was published today in The Journal - a North East of England morning daily.

Sir

The EU Has not sent any aid to the Katrina victims

"EU sends aid to Katrina victims" blared most newspaper headlines a few days ago. This is pure propaganda - it is not true.

All the aid from European Union member states was supplied on an individual national bases. These efforts involved neither "EU aid'', nor ''EU money''. Twelve EU member states actually responded to the request for aid, which was not submitted to the EU commission.

All the EU commission is doing is handling the practical co-ordination via the Monitoring and Information Centre of the EU Commission's Environment Directorate. The EU has not allocated an aid budget to the devestated flood victims in the US.

Of course, there was nothing to stop the EU Commision making an unsolicited much needed donation to the American Red Cross, which it clearly chose not to do - shame upon them.

Peter Troy