Conciliatie-overeenkomst: Europees Parlement stopt hernationalisering van milieubeleid (en)

The European Parliament and the Council reached agreement on 27 March on the funding arrangements for the EU's environmental policy. MEPs managed to ensure that the new financial instrument (known as Life+ ) will continue to provide "EU added value".

To get their way, MEPs had to go as far as conciliation, i.e. the direct, last-chance negotiations with the Council which are envisaged when the two institutions have not reached agreement after two readings of the co-decision procedure. The negotiations were concluded on Tuesday evening with an agreement at the first formal meeting of the Conciliation Committee.

Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (EPP-ED, EL) and German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, the leaders of the two delegations, welcomed this speedy outcome. "This deal will enable us to breathe life into Life+ as soon as possible. Interested parties will be able to apply for EU funds very quickly", said Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou. Life+ is intended to fund environmental programmes for the period 2007-2013. The leader of the EP delegation also emphasised that MEPs were united in the negotiations: the agreement was approved unanimously on the EP side.

European dimension safeguarded

Life+ will group together environmental programmes which until now were dispersed and came under different procedures and funding arrangements: the former Life programme, Forest Focus, the programme for sustainable urban development and the support programme for environmental NGOs. This new general framework is intended to ensure more efficient, more flexible and less bureaucratic management.

"This funding is only a drop in the ocean compared with the Union's annual budget", pointed out rapporteur Marie-Anne Isler Béguin (Greens/EFA, FR), who conducted the negotiations for Parliament and managed to squeeze out a slight increase of €40 million, bringing the total amount for Life+ to some €1 951 million for the period 2007-2013. The total EU budget is over €125 billion per year.  In the Financial Perspective for 2007-2013, environmental expenditure was cut sharply, as Mr Gabriel acknowledged, speaking of funding that is "not very generous".

"It would have been a pity if this limited funding had been held up any longer", said Marie- Anne Isler Béguin. "It was important for us to preserve the principle of Community management, with common criteria for project selection, a central role for the Commission and with a large proportion of the funds being earmarked for transnational projects - at least 15% - and for biodiversity - at least 50%".

In its original proposal, the Commission proposed that 80% of the funding be delegated to the Member States, without sufficiently emphasising European added value, according to MEPs. The Member States (the Council) wanted a form of indirect management in which the Commission's role would have been limited to approving projects submitted by governments.

MEPs successfully pushed for a number of guarantees to ensure that this delegated management does not turn into "renationalisation" of environmental policy:

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  projects will be selected by the Commission in line with a list of common criteria and priorities;
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  lists of projects submitted to the Commission by the Member States will be "indicative" only, even though the Commission is supposed to "take them into account";
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  Member States must seek to ensure that at least 15 percent of the budget dedicated to project action grants is allocated to transnational projects;
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  the share of the budget delegated to Member States will be 78%, with 2% for the Commission to cover administrative costs relating to the central role that MEPs want it to play.

Support for Natura 2000

The EP delegation also successfully demanded a reorganisation of the way the funds will be spent. The original proposal envisaged only two sections: one for implementation of policies and governance, the other for information and communication. MEPs added a third part - "nature and biodiversity" - which should account for at least 50% of the operational budget.

For MEPs, this was a way to increase the funding for Natura 2000, a network of areas where biodiversity is protected, which today covers 18% of the surface area of the EU-15. The annual cost of this network was estimated in 2004 to be €6100 million. Given the reduced budget for Life+,  most of the EU funding for Natura 2000 will continue to come from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

Rapporteur: Marie Anne Isler Béguin (Greens/EFA, FR)

27/03/2007

Chair of EP delegation : Rodi KRATSA-TSAGAROPOULOU (EPP-DE, EL)