Council Regulation (EC) No 1466/97 of 7 July 1997 on the strengthening of the surveillance of budgetary positions and the surveillance and coordination of economic policies (3) considered appropriate to complement the multilaterial surveillance procedure of Article 99(3) and (4) of the Treaty with an early warning system, under which the Council will alert a Member State at an early stage to the need to take the necessary budgetary corrective action in order to prevent a government deficit becoming excessive.
The Community may support existing national early-warning systems and help to strengthen existing international early-warning systems concerning the food situation in developing countries and, in exceptional and duly substantiated cases, it may operate such systems, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 27. ... Community support for storage programmes and early-warning systems may be granted, upon request, to international or regional organizations or non-governmental organizations for operations to help developing countries eligible for food aid from the Community and its Member States.
