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European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) was established in 1992 by the Second Delors Commission. Funding from the office affects 18 million people every year in 60 countries. It spends €700 million a year on humanitarian projects through its over 200 partners (such as the Red Cross, Relief NGOs and UN agencies). It claims a key focus is to make EU aid more effective and humanitarian. With the European Community being abolished in 2009, the office began to be known as the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission or European Union, but kept its ECHO abbreviation.
A special Eurobarometer survey on humanitarian aid conducted in 2010 reveals the high sense of solidarity among European citizens towards victims of conflict and natural disasters outside their borders, with 8 out of ten citizens thinking that "it is important that the EU funds humanitarian aid outside its borders". However, less than 2 out of 10 European citizens spontaneously name the EU, the European Commission and/or ECHO as an actor funding humanitarian aid.
Read more about this topic: ECHO (European Commission)
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