Could the Marshall Plan be next for Haiti?

Catherine Ashton, High Representative of EU for Foreign Affairs announced today that the EU wants to launch a "Marshall Plan" for Haiti.
The Marshall Plan, officially called the European Recovery Program ", was a U.S. plan to help rebuild Europe after the Second World War.
"We must implement a sort of Marshall Plan for Haiti" declared Catherine Ashton during a press conference in Brussels after a meeting of foreign ministers of the EU. She also stressed that European support. The amount of EU funding to date amounts to 609 million euros (829 million) (EU budget and national budget), including 309 million euros (421 million) of aid Humanitarian (120 million from the EU budget, 189 million of EU states). 300 million euros (408 million dollars) for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Ms. Ashton should go to Port-au-Prince next week.

What is exactly the Marshall Plan?

The Marshall Plan (from its enactment, officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was the primary program, 1948–52, of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and repelling the threat of internal communism after World War II.

The initiative was named for Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan. George Marshall spoke of the administration's desire to help European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947.


The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was established on June 5, 1947. It offered the same aid to the USSR and its allies, but they did not accept it. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. During that period some US$12 billion in economic and technical assistance were given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. This $12 billion was in the context of a U.S. GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and was on top of $12 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan.


The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery. The plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reduce artificial trade barriers, and instill a sense of hope and self-reliance.
By 1952 as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels; for all Marshall plan recipients, output in 1951 was 35% higher than in 1938.   Over the next two decades, Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity.