Humanitarian aid

The Commission's amended proposal incorporates, in full or in part, 18 of the 23 amendments proposed by the European Parliament at first reading. The amendments adopted by the Commission seek to: - ensure that assistance provided to underprivileged groups is not discriminatory (on grounds of sex, age or physical constitution); - ensure that humanitarian aid is visible, especially where local authorities cannot or will not guarantee the survival or protection of the population in question; - highlight the idea of a continuum between short-term rehabilitation actions and long-term development objectives; - ensure that certain actions take account of current international conventions (especially those relating to displaced persons); - strengthen coordination and consultation with humanitarian agencies, NGOs and international organizations; - grant Member States and beneficiary countries the same right of initiative to implement humanitarian operations as NGOs and international organizations; - clarify the objective criteria and factors which may be taken into account in order to determine NGOs access to funding under this regulation (impartiality and previous experience); - deal with the question of coordination in a single article by including coordination with international organizations which form part of the United Nations system; - clarify eligible types of aid (especially project monitoring and evaluation actions and expenditure to ensure that humanitarian actions are visible; the construction of housing or shelters for the population in question is also eligible); - clarify the implementation of global humanitarian aid plans in regions in which the humanitarian crisis is prolonged; - transmit evaluation reports to and engage in close dialogue with the European Parliament.�