The committee adopted the report by Erika MANN (PES, DE) amending - under the consultation procedure - the proposed Council decision on providing exceptional Community assistance to Kosovo. MEPs stressed that this exceptional financial assistance must be considered to be be complementary to other Community assistance programmes for the Western Balkans. They also altered the wording of Article 1(1) to make it clear that the core purpose of the exceptional grant was to meet Kosovo's projected budget gap in 2006 and 2007. A number of other amendments sought to ensure that Parliament was properly informed of the implementation of this aid instrument, that it would be consulted on the continuation of the exceptional assistance beyond 2007, that external auditors would be engaged to carry out an independent external evaluation, and that the disbursement of funds would be subject to human rights conditionality and economic and financial conditionality.