on the establishment of a Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1293/2013

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliamentand of the Council

The EU is a global leader for environmental protection and climate action and - as confirmed in the President Juncker's 2017 State of the Union address - wants to enhance this role.

The LIFE programme is the only EU fund entirely dedicated to environmental and climate objectives. With its modest budget it targets a niche between EU programmes supporting research and innovation on the one hand and EU programmes financing large-scale deployment of measures on the other hand.

While LIFE activities tackle certain problems directly on the ground, the programme's main impact is indirect through its catalytic role directed to initiate, expand or accelerate sustainable production, distribution and consumption practices by supporting:

­The development and exchange of best practice and knowledge;

­The building up of the capacities and the speeding up of the implementation of environmental and climate legislation and policies;

­Stakeholders testing small-scale technologies and solutions; and

­The mobilisation of funding from other sources.

This impact assessment accompanies the Commission proposal for the future LIFE Programme for the Environment and Climate Action post 2020 and satisfies the requirements of the Financial Regulation in respect of preparing an ex-ante evaluation.

Challenges and opportunities for the LIFE programme for the next MFF

The recent mid-term evaluation of LIFE (MTE) , confirmed that the current programme is on track to be effective , efficient and relevant and it is providing a contribution to the Europe 2020 strategy. Furthermore, most stakeholders see LIFE as being a very important instrument for addressing environmental and climate priorities.

However, the MTE also identified opportunities to further enhance the programme’s overall effectiveness, which would not be realised with a continuation of the LIFE programme in its current format, and scale, in the period 2021-2027. They concern, in particular, opportunities to improve coherence between the LIFE programme and other EU funds and to enhance the catalytic role of the programme. Further opportunities for improvements were also identified in relation to the strategic focus of the programme, as well as opportunities to increase the efficiency and simplify the management of LIFE.

The preferred options

To address the identified challenges, several options were identified and then screened in terms of their effectiveness, efficiency and coherence. This identified a number of specific improvement options for the new programme, as described further below.

Three options were shortlisted in relation to the programme’s coverage and scope:

1.Extending the scope of LIFE to include capacity building projects related to clean energy by adding a sub-programme on Clean Energy Transition would provide a more coherent approach to the funding of capacity building projects in the clean energy area, whilst also improving access to a wider range of beneficiaries.

2.Reinforcing LIFE's support for the mainstreaming of nature and biodiversity objectives. This would enhance the financing of nature, and improve coherence in the overall structuring of the EU budget by facilitating an improved mainstreaming approach. It may though require additional planning and coordination efforts from the environment authorities.

3.Extending the eligibility of LIFE to the EU's Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT), specifically for nature and biodiversity actions within the Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme, would address a potential gap in funding of the BEST scheme .

If the budget is specifically increased to include Clean Energy Transition and/or to include a sub-programme for Nature, these options (option 1 and 2) should be included in the structure of the Life Programme.

Nine options were shortlisted in relation to the programme’s delivery mechanisms, and programme management