55. Strongly condemns the Council's cut to commitment appropriations for humanitarian aid which cannot resolve the problem of carrying over backlogs of unpaid invoices from previous years and is jeopardising the smooth implementation of this policy, putting the lives of its beneficiaries in threat; stresses that the level of payment appropriations for the Emergency Aid Reserve should correspond to the level of commitment appropriations and must be entered in the budget over and above the MFF payment ceiling ; stresses the gap between commitment and payment appropriations in Humanitarian aid should be reduced in order to take account of the short spending cycles in this area and to break the habit of carrying over backlogs of unpaid invoice
...[+++]s from previous years; strongly rejects the adverse effects that payment cutbacks, including postponed payment and delayed operations, that are a consequence of inadequate budgeting, pose for humanitarian aid,, and that are especially ill-fated when so many people are affected by the increasing instability in the periphery; thinks these events serve as a sad but strong alarm signal for the necessity for a more realistic way of budgeting;