21. Welcomes the Commission's proposals to underline the EU’s support for a plurality of implementing partners, in particular NGOs, the UN and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, and supports its proposed criteria for partner selection; calls on the Commission to help implementing agencies from the new Member States (the EU-12, i.e., the ten new Member States, which acceded to the EU in 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania, which acceded to the EU in 2007) become fully integrated into humanitarian aid activities; considers that the Consensus should recognise and further define the different roles, mandates and comparative advantages of the various humanitarian actors, in order to avoid a conflict of mandates and competition for resources among ...[+++] them and that the EU should support capacity-building within the humanitarian community, with particular attention to local and regional capacity; believes that special attention should be given to the role of NGOs, the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and civil society actors, both from the South and the North, not only in the delivery of aid, but also in developing policies that reflect the real needs and concerns of local partners in the South and in gaining the support of European citizens;

On 27 November he will visit the Kalma camp near Nyala in Darfur, meets the Governor of South Darfur, EC humanitarian aid partners and in El Fashir President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jacob Kellenberger as well as the African Union Ceasefire Commission and the Governor of North Darfur.

- - - NGOs THAT HAVE CONCLUDED FRAMEWORK PARTNERSHIP CONTRACTS WITH THE COMMISSION (as of 15 July 1993) INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES CROIX ROUGE FRANCAISE (F) CROIX ROUGE DE BELGIQUE (B) CRUZ ROJA ESPAÑOLA (E) CRUZ VERMELHA PORTUGUESA (P) CROIX ROUGE LUXEMBOURGEOISE (L) ERITHROS STAVROS (GREEK RED CROSS) CROCE ROSSA ITALIANA (IT) DANSK RODE KORS (DK) DEUTSCHES ROTES KREUZ (D) THE IRISH RED CROSS HET NEDERLANDSE RODE KRUIS (NL) THE BRITISH RED CROSS (UK) INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC) THE SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND (UK) RED BARNET (DK) CARITAS ESPAÑOLA (S) SECOURS CATHOLIQUE (F) DEUTSCHER CARITASVERBAND (D) CARITAS DANMARK (DK) CATHOLIC FUND FOR OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT (UK) CARITAS ITALIANA (IT) ...[+++]CARITAS NEERLANDICA (NL) SECOURS INTERNATIONAL DE CARITAS CATHOLICA BELGICA (B) MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES (F) MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES/ARTSEN ZONDER GRENZEN (B) ARTSEN ZONDER GRENZEN (NL) MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES, Switzerland MEDICOS SIN FRONTERAS (E) MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES (L) CARE INTERNATIONAL CARE BRITAIN (UK) AMI - Fundação Assistência Médica Internacional (P) CHRISTIAN AID (UK) DIAKONIA, Sweden DIAKONISCHES WERK of the Evangelical Churches in Germany (D) FOLKEKIRKENS NØDHJÆLP/DANCHURCHAID (DK) KIRKENS NØDHJELP, Norway STICHTING OECUMENISCHE HULP (Dutch Interchurch Aid) (NL) LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION, Switzerland GOAL (I) FEED THE CHILDREN (UK) ACTION INTERNATIONALE CONTRE LA FAIM (F) ASSOCIAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE VOLONTARI LAICI (IT) COMITATO INTERNAZIONALE PER LO SVILUPPO DEI POPOLI (IT) HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL (F) HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL (B) ACTION NORD SUD (F) * * *

The Dutch Red Cross, acting for the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), will see to the purchase and distribution of the medical kits to children's hospitals in twelve oblasts in the European part of southern Russia: Volgograd, Rostov, Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Adygeya, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Chechen-Ingushetia.

I would also like to personally thank the mayors of Lachine, St-Pierre, Montreal West and City Councillor Michael Applebaum, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, hydro workers, our magnificent Canadian Armed Forces, the NDG Community Council, Ville St-Pierre's Club Optimist and the many wonderful municipal and volunteer workers who tirelessly worked throughout the storm to ensure that each and every resident of NDG—Lachine was kept warm, fed and safe.