GC: n

S: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/council/decision-making-process?lang=en (last access: 3 September 2014); http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/institutional_affairs/treaties/amsterdam_treaty/a29000_en.htm (last access: 3 September 2014); http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2002:0247:FIN:EN:PDF (last access: 26 April 2013).

N: A Union humanitarian aid operation can be initiated at the request of the Commission, NGOs, international organisations, Member States or beneficiary countries.
The Commission has three separate decision-making procedures available to it:
the delegation procedure: to speed up the response to sudden emergencies, the Commission has delegated powers to the Director of the Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) for primary emergency humanitarian decisions within certain limits (maximum amount of EUR 3 million, maximum duration of three months);
the empowerment procedure: the Member of the Commission responsible for humanitarian aid is empowered to take decisions relating to emergency operations up to EUR 30 million for a maximum of six months as well as non-urgent decisions up to a maximum of EUR 10 million. These decisions are subject to a consultation procedure (cabinets, interdepartmental). Emergency decisions exceeding EUR 10 million and non-urgent decisions exceeding EUR 2 million require Humanitarian Aid Committee approval;
the written procedure for all decisions not covered by the delegation or empowerment procedures.

S: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV:r10001 (last access: 4 October 2015)

SYN:
S:

CR: humanitarian aid