Mr President, the last days of 1999 were swept away by an incredibly violent storm, which struck France in the main, but also affected Germany, Spain, Great Britain and Switzerland. I am sad to say that it accounted for more than 100 deaths, 88 of which occurred in France. The human cost has been enormous, but so has the material damage, and both public amenities and private property have been destroyed or seriously damaged. Millions of homes are without electricity, telephones or running water. Economic activities have been brought to a halt. In France alone, insurance companies are already estimating the costs of the damages at a total of FF 35-40 billion, which is between EUR 5 and 6 billion. This unprecedented natural disaster has called all available forces to action and has given rise to demonstrations of solidarity both within the Community’s borders and beyond. This is why I would like to thank all of those who gave a hand to the emergency services, and to the authorities and public services which were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. Thank you, everyone, from the bottom of my heart, for this invaluable help. Now that the shock has passed and the authorities’ vital functions have been re-established, I wonder, and I ask the Commission and the Council to consider as well the opportunity once again to incorporate a budget line for emergency aid into the Community budget, in order to address this kind of occurrence. The risks of weather-related disasters must not be ignored and, in the light of the consequences of such disasters and the speed of intervention that they require, I think that the Community would do well to have these resources again. It should be possible to release the emergency aid that we once had from the strict rules applied to the Structural Funds. I also agree with Commissioner Barnier’s proposal to gradually set in place a European civil protection force – a proposal he put forward several months ago now – which we discussed, Commissioner, at the time of the earthquakes. It is obvious that the answer to the question I am asking about re-establishing Community emergency aid must be “yes”. Next, I would like to address the huge problems encountered by one industry that has been particularly badly affected by this storm. I am talking about the forestry sector, whose business has been seriously damaged by the havoc that the terrible weather wrought on the forests. It must be understood that forests are not just landscape or environmental features. They also represent a major socio-economic sector in some regions, and this should not be overlooked. In France, more than 120 million cubic metres of wood were brought down by the wind. This represents around three years' full harvest for producers. The consequences of this have been immediate. Some foresters have lost everything. Entire areas of forest have been devastated, which will, in a few weeks, cause security and fire-fighting problems. Prices have already fallen because of the huge availability of timber, which has led to market saturation. Infrastructures will suffer as a result of the abnormal volume of heavy goods vehicles, logging and handling gear on the roads. In these circumstances, it is crucial that we re-establish access routes, restore the land, and implement technical solutions, which will enable us to refit storage areas, and prop up timber prices. In the long term we will have to reforest, with all the resources we can muster. This is a whole raft of measures which should be adopted, Mr President, and I am delighted at the indications which the Commissioner gave, even though he knows that not everything is eligible under Objective 2. Médoc is not, Commissioner, and I hope that, given the circumstances, the EAGGF will be able to replace Objective 2.

Political group: PPE-DE