D. whereas political crises in the Maghreb and the Middle-East have led to a rise in oil prices; whereas the further development of the oil price remains uncertain given the continuing political instability in the Arab world,

In the days and weeks to come, the Council will carefully consider what specific measures can and should be taken to express our discontent with this situation, and also to influence future developments in the country.

Should it prove necessary in future, in the next 18 months, to refer to the postponement clauses, Parliament will have full involvement in this.

33. Supports the adoption of a general block exemption regulation by the Commission in order to simplify and consolidate the existing block exemptions, notably on training, SMEs and employment, and to integrate a broader range of exemptions, notably as regards State aid to support SMEs and RD, so long as cross-subsidisation from small to large enterprises is monitored and prohibited as appropriate; agrees with the Commission's aim of focusing its resources on tackling the most distortional aids; considers that the notification procedures and delays inherent therein should be proportionate to the risk of distortion of competition arising from the grant of aid in question; opines that a single legal instrument could also f ...[+++]acilitate future extensions of the block exemption concept, such that smaller amounts of each type of aid need no longer be notified;

an amount equal to 50 % of the undertaking's future profits; the amount of the future profits shall be obtained by multiplying the estimated annual profit by a factor which represents the average period left to run on policies; the factor used may not exceed 10; the estimated annual profit shall be the arithmetical average of the profits made over the last five years in the activities listed in Article 2 of this Directive.

C. whereas the interim measures represent a quantitative increase in controls: introduction of a maximum guaranteed quantity by Member State (see paragraph 12 of the Court's observations), additional conditions for the approval of mills, quality control of olive oil, obligation on growers to keep records, imposition of a scale of penalties, specific on-the-spot checks, control coverage between 1 and 10 % of the growers" declarations, additional cursory checks on mills and in-depth cross-checks for suppliers and consignees (paragraph 13 of the Court's observations),