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Press: 61 - Nr: 6506/01
General Affairs Council
Brussels (26-02-2001)

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CREATION OF A RAPID REACTION MECHANISM


 


 


The Council adopted a Regulation creating a rapid reaction mechanism.

The RRM is designed to allow the Community to respond in a rapid, efficient and flexible manner, to situations of urgency or
crisis or to the emergence of crisis. It builds on a large number of existing Community legal instruments, both
"geographical" and "sectoral" (e.g.food aid, reconstruction, NGOs, etc.).

RRM Actions may be undertaken if:

          (a) the action is intended to be immediate and cannot be launched within a reasonable time-limit under the
          existing legal instruments, in view of the need to act rapidly.
 

(b) the action is limited in time.


In particular security or crisis-management circumstances, the Commission may decide that intervention by means of the
Rapid Reaction Mechanism is combined with ECHO action.

The RRM may be triggered when in the beneficiary countries concerned there occur situations of crisis or emerging crisis,
situations posing a threat to law and order, the security and safety of individuals, situations threatening to escalate into
armed conflict or to destabilise the country and where such situations are likely to jeopardise the beneficial effects of
assistance and cooperation policies and programmes, their effectiveness and/or conditions for their proper implementation.

Each year the budgetary authority shall set an overall annual ceiling for the funding of interventions provided for under this
Regulation, within the limits of the financial perspective. The Commission has indicated a probable budget of 20m euro in
2001 and 25m euro in 2002.