What is the Commissions budget for humanitarian aid and what are currently the biggest humanitarian operations of ECHO?
The Commission is one of the main sources of humanitarian aid in the world. In 2006, it provided €671 million through ECHO for relief programmes. This does not include the aid given separately by the EU’s Member States. The Commission’s humanitarian assistance went to projects in more than 60 countries worldwide. Its humanitarian aid budget for 2007 is more than €722 million. If necessary, the Commission may also ask the EU’s budgetary authority, the European Parliament and Council, to increase its funding by mobilising the reserve for emergency aid. This allows it to respond promptly to specific aid needs arising from events that could not have been foreseen when the budget was drawn up. More than €200 million are available in this reserve for 2007. The biggest relief operations currently supported by the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) are in Sudan (Darfur in particular) and Chad, the Middle East (Palestinian Territories and Lebanon), the Democratic Republic of the Co
