The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, monitoring communicable diseases, notes that favourable climatic conditions allow the virus to spread, in particular in the Mediterranean region.

14. Considers, with regard to the EU's capacity to respond to the challenges of today's world, that the Commission should, as far as possible, anticipate the application of the provisions of the constitutional Treaty concerning the CFSP; the Commission should focus on the new European neighbourhood policy (ENP), including the consolidation of Euro-Mediterranean relations; negotiations with the new candidate countries; the promotion and strengthening of the multilateral world system, which must go hand in hand with international institutions that respect democracy; transparency and responsibility; a sustainable development policy founded on achievement of the Millennium goals and geared to combating pove ...[+++]rty and poverty-related diseases; a European security and defence policy enabling the Union to respond to major international crises; negotiations with the WTO and the Doha development agenda must be guided by the principle of fair trade and coherence between the various policies affecting international trade;

The aid is mainly medical and will be used to treat the chronic endemic diseases which affect growing numbers of children in Lebanon, particularly those in the south, who live in poverty as a result of the region's political instability (1) Thalassaemia, or Mediterranean anaemia, is increasingly widespread among the poor in the Beeka and southern Lebanon and has reached a critical threshold.