THE FUTURE OF THE EC DEVELOPMENT BUDGET
ECHO
75. The Commission has recommended a cut in the emergency
aid reserve of 150 million ecu, to 200 million ecu per year, on
the basis that the resources allocated directly to ECHO at the
beginning of each year will be increased by the same amount. This
will increase the ability of ECHO to access resources for emergency
operations more quickly than has previously been the case. DFID
has welcomed this proposal in principle, provided it does not
result in an overall increase in the funding available for humanitarian
operations.[140] Mr
Alberto Navarro, Commissioner responsible for ECHO, told the Committee
in Brussels that he would welcome such a reallocation of resources.[141]
76. To date, the accounting mechanism showing the
movement of funds from the emergency aid reserve to ECHO has been
complicated. In each annual budget, the emergency aid reserve
appears as a separate budget heading under Category 6 (Reserves).
In subsequent years, however, budgets do not show the extent to
which resources have been moved from the reserve into ECHO's budget.
Therefore, purely in terms of transparent accounting, the allocation
of resources directly to ECHO, eliminating the need for complex
movement of resources from reserves later in the year, would be
a positive step forward. In the interests of transparency and
efficiency, we share DFID's support for the proposal put forward
by the Commission to cut the emergency aid reserve by 150 million
ecu and allocate those resources directly to ECHO.
140 Evidence, p.12 Back
141 Annex
p.xlviii Back
|
