Translation of "Remise accordée pour le plan de crédit à terme " (French → English) :

202. Emphasises that 2013 was the second consecutive year that humanitarian aid through the Union budget exceeded EUR 1,3 billion in commitments due to the occurrence of a high number of humanitarian crises that caused immense human suffering; deplores the impact that the lack of payment appropriations had in this crisis year on DG ECHO's activities, which could only be maintained through rearranging payment schedules, resulting in a carry-over of EUR 160 million in payment arrears at year end; calls on the Council to comply with the payment plan agreed with Parliament;

5. Underlines that 2013 was the second consecutive year that humanitarian aid through the Union budget exceeded EUR 1,3 billion in commitments due to the occurrence of a high number of humanitarian crises that caused immense human suffering; deplores the impact that the lack of payment appropriations had in this crisis year on DG ECHO's activities, which could only be maintained through rearranging payment schedules, resulting in a carry-over of EUR 160 million in payment arrears at year end; calls on the Council to comply with the payment plan agreed with Parliament;

43. Reiterates the EU's commitment to continuing to support Afghanistan; stresses that the overall objective of EU development assistance to Afghanistan should be to assist in the long-term sustainable development of the country, including improvement of socio-economic standards, facilitating job creation and proliferation of SMEs, strengthening the educational sector and ensuring gender equality; underlines the fact that the aid should further facilitate capacity-building in the public administration, strengthen the rule of law and reduce corruption, thus facilitating the transfer of security to the Government of the Islamic Republic ...[+++]of Afghanistan (GIRoA); recommends that part of the financial assistance to Afghanistan be allocated to the five-year plan to phase out opium cultivation and replace it with alternative crops; stresses the need to facilitate sub-regional cooperation by means of assistance for issues of a cross-border nature;

1. Reiterates the EU’s commitment to continuing to support Afghanistan; stresses that the overall objective of EU development assistance to Afghanistan should be to assist in the long-term sustainable development of the country, including improvement of socio-economic standards, facilitating job creation and proliferation of SMEs, strengthening the educational sector and ensuring gender equality; underlines the fact that the aid should further facilitate capacity-building in the public administration, strengthen the rule of law and reduce corruption, thus facilitating the transfer of security to the Government of the Islamic Republic o ...[+++]f Afghanistan (GIRoA); recommends that part of the financial assistance to Afghanistan be allocated to the five-year plan to phase out opium cultivation and replace it with alternative crops; stresses the need to facilitate sub-regional cooperation by means of assistance for issues of a cross-border nature;

Moreover, according to the case-law, although Member States have wide discretion to define what they regard as services of general economic interest, the definition of such services or tasks by a Member State can be questioned by the Commission in the event of a manifest error . In other words, although the determination of the nature and scope of an SGEI mission falls within the competence and discretionary powers of Member States, such competence is ...[+++]neither unlimited nor can it be exercised arbitrarily . In particular, for an activity to be considered as an SGEI, it should exhibit special characteristics as compared with ordinary economic activities . In this respect, the Commission will consider that in areas where private investors have already invested in a broadband network infrastructure (or are in the process of expanding further their network infrastructure) and are already providing competitive broadband services with an adequate broadband coverage, setting up a parallel competitive and publicly-funded broadband infrastructure should not be considered as an SGEI within the meaning of Article 86 of the Treaty . Where however it can be demonstrated that private investors may not be in a position to provide in the near future adequate broadband coverage to all citizens or users leaving thus a significant part of the population unconnected, a public service compensation may be granted to an undertaking entrusted with the operation of an SGEI provided that the conditions set out in paragraphs 25 to 29 are met.

The estimative credits foreseen in this planning shall be covered within the allocations of appropriations on the B4-3040A granted to the managing DGs (DG Environment and others) in the framework of the annual budget procedure.