Humanitarian aid: aid to uprooted people (refugees, displaced persons) in Asian and Latin American developing countries

OBJECTIVE: to establish administration procedures and rules applicable to cooperation projects to provide aid to promote the self-sufficiency of uprooted people (refugees, displaced persons and returnees, demobilized soldiers) in the Latin American and Asian countries in the phase immediately after humanitarian crisis intervention and before the implementation of rehabilitation or development cooperation aid. CONTENT: the purpose of the operations covered by this regulation is to provide: . aid towards the subsistence, maintenance and integration of refugees in asylum countries, . assistance to populations in host regions with a view to compensating them following the arrival of refugees, . aid for repatriation, the reintegration of refugees in their country of origin, integration in other regions in the host country or reintegration in a third country, . aide for economic integration, socio-economic reactivation in returnee areas and the reintegration of former combatants, . mine clearing operations. - Recipients: uprooted persons from or temporarily settled in all ALA developing countries. - Cooperation partners: NGOs, United Nations agencies, international organizations, states, regions, decentralized departments, public agencies, traditional and local communities, institutes, private operators or consultants. - Operations to be implemented: within the framework of the general objectives of this programme, Community funding may cover the cost of investments (except real estate) and operations in foreign or local currency. They include studies, technical assistance, training and other services. Joint funding will be actively sought from Member States and from multilateral or regional organizations. Provision is made for coordination along these lines. - Form of aid: grants. - Decision-making procedure: the Commission will administer operations covered by the regulation. It will be assisted by an ALA advisory committee set up under Regulation (EEC) No 443/92. Participation in invitations to tender and the award of contracts is open to the recipient country and the Member States and other third developing countries. In exceptional cases supplies may originate elsewhere. - Exchanges of view: the Commission will hold an exchange of views once a year on future operations to be conducted within the framework of this cooperation. - Information: an annual report will be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council summarizing and evaluating the operations financed in the course of the financial year (any contracts concluded, independent evaluations etc.). - Budget: the financial statement makes provision for the sum of ECU 60 million in 1996 (this cooperation does not include any provision as to its duration and it is therefore renewable annually).�