WORKING WITH DG ECHO AS AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION | 2014 - 2020

PRIMARY EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY AND AD HOC DECISIONS

PRIMARY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY AD-HOC

A Primary Emergency financing Decision is a special type of Emergency financing Decision designed to cover the first immediate needs of the people concerned in the hours and days after the outbreak of a new humanitarian crisis.

It is a first initial response which does not aim to cover all the needs. The Primary Emergency financing decision is appropriate in the case of sudden onset of natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes), and man-made disasters (e.g. conflicts).

This type of financing Decisions are taken by the Director-General within seventy-two hours from the outbreak of the humanitarian crisis.

The Actions financed under a Primary Emergency Decision

must start within five days from the outbreak of the crisis,

the duration should be limited to three months

it is not possible to extend the duration of the Actions.

Only one Primary Emergency financing Decision may be adopted for a specific crisis. Any other complementary financing decision covering the same crisis must take the form of an Emergency Decision (see next tab).

When a crisis arises, Partners are invited to pro-actively contact ECHO to share their analysis of the situation and capacities to respond. ECHO may also contact Partners present in the country or the region affected with a view to prepare ECHO response.

Proposals should be submitted to ECHO as soon as possible after the onset of the crisis. In some cases, the proposals will serve as background to draft the financing decision.

Once they have been issued, they are published on the ECHO website

The legal base for the Emergency financing Decisions is the Article 13 of the Humanitarian Aid Regulation.

The Emergency financing decisions cover both new crises and existing humanitarian crises where humanitarian aid is already under way, but where continuing uncertainty and instability (a 'crisis within a crisis') require an appropriate, rapid and flexible response (e.g. where there are sudden deteriorating weather conditions within a natural disaster situation).

Experience shows that most Emergency financing decisions are taken to react to sudden natural disasters and a few of them are related to conflicts (e.g. sudden flows of refugees).

The duration of individual Actions financed under this type of Decision

shall be limited to six months and

can not be extended.

EMERGENCY DECISION ADOPTION'S PROCEDURE

Emergency financing Decisions up to and including EUR 10,000,000 are transmitted for information to the Humanitarian Aid Committee (HAC) within 48 hours of their adoption and there is no right of scrutiny of the European Parliament (EP).

On the contrary, when the European Commission adopts Emergency financing Decisions of an amount above EUR 10,000,000, both the HAC and the EP have to be involved

When a crisis arises, Partners and Un Agencies are invited to pro-actively contact ECHO to share their analysis of the situation and capacities to respond. ECHO may also contact those that are present in the country or in the region affected with a view to prepare ECHO response.

Once they are issued, the Emergency decisions are published on ECHO website

The Ad-hoc financing decisions primarily cover funding for crisis in African, Caribbean or Pacific countries funded from the European Development Fund (which is outside the EU budget).

REFERENCE, DOCUMENT & USEFUL LINKS

NGO-FPA GUIDELINES, SECTIONS 5.2 - 5.4

EN FR

DG ECHO WEBPAGE