Amended proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 on protection of the Community's forests against fire (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC-Treaty)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

A. Principles

Council Regulations (EC) No 307/97 amending Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 on the protection of the Community's forests against atmospheric pollution [1] and (EC) No 308/97 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 on the protection of the Community's forests against fire [2] take Article 43 of the Treaty as their legal basis. The sole aim of the proposed Regulations is to adapt the legal basis of the two Regulations concerned following a Court judgment of 30 April 1997 to the effect that the legal basis for those two Regulations must be Article 130s of the Treaty (now Article 175 of the Treaty).

[1] OJ L 51, 21.2.1997, p. 9.

[2] OJ L 51, 21.2.1997, p. 11.

The financial allocation for these two measures has been adjusted in line with the actual budget allocations for 1997-2000 and those provided for in the 2001 PDB.

The original versions of these proposals were presented by the Commission on 22 July 1999 (COM (1999) 379 final).

On the basis of a report drafted by Ms Encarnación Redondo Jimenéz, on 6 July 2000 the European Parliament approved the Commission proposals at the first reading, subject to 12 amendments.

In the light of these developments, the Commission has drafted two amended proposals.

The Commission has made two types of amendments:

-firstly, in response to the first reading by the European Parliament, a number of new provisions have been accepted,

-secondly, the modified proposals also take into account the amounts actually set aside in the budget for the period 1997-2000 and those in the PDB for 2001.

B. Explanation

The Commission was able to accept 8 amendments proposed by the European Parliament. Most of these were amendments concerning policy or technical issues.

The amendments or important parts of amendments that the Commission was unable to accept relate to:

-a 10% increase in the financial reference amounts allocated in 1997 (i.e. to EUR 44 million for Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 and EUR 77 million for Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92), and

-replacing the regulatory procedure with the advisory procedure.

In view of the amounts actually set aside in the budget for the period 1997-2000, the increase proposed by Parliament would result in an increase of EUR 37 million in the budget for 2001. In other words, instead of the EUR 16 million proposed in the PDB for 2001 (heading B2-515 - Forestry) and subsequently confirmed during the budget procedure by both arms of the budgetary authority, provision should have been made for EUR 53 million.

The amendment of the committee procedure does not comply with Article 2(b) of Council Decision 1999/468/EC laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission.

1999/0160(COD)

Amended proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 on protection of the Community's forests against fire

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 175 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission [3],

[3] OJ C

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee [4],

[4] OJ C

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions [5],

[5] OJ C

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty,

Whereas:

(1) Since the rural communities, in particular foresters and stock farmers, who are the main trustees of Europe' forest heritage, and especially their professional organisations, play a fundamental role in drawing up regional fire prevention action plans, in practising preventive silviculture and as first-line firefighters, it is important to create the conditions for the effective participation of these people in the protection of European forests against this abiotic agent.

(2) The period of application of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the Community's forests against fire [6] expired on 31 December 1996.

[6] OJ L 217, 31.7.1992, p.3.

(3) Forests play an essential part in maintaining fundamental ecological balances, particularly as regards the soil, water resources, climate, fauna and flora. Those balances are indispensable for a sustainable agriculture and the management of rural areas.

(4) The Mediterranean forests are of importance to the ecosystems of the countries of the south of the European Union, particularly the regions affected by desertification.

(5) The conservation of forests is important for economic, environmental and social reasons and contributes, in particular, towards safeguarding the social situation of those people working in agriculture and in rural areas.

(6) The Community and the Member States attach particular importance to the protection of their forest resources and have given international undertakings on the sustainable development of forests and the protection of forest regions, in particular during the United Nations World Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and at the three pan-European Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe in Strasbourg in 1990, in Helsinki in 1993 and in Lisbon in 1998. The Community scheme provided for by Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 helps to fulfil those undertakings.

(7) Under Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 60 million hectares of forest, equivalent to about half of all European forests, have been classified as fire-risk zones.

(8) Fires continue to restrict the sustainable development of forests in fire-risk zones.

(9) The protection of forests against fire therefore directly contributes to the achievement of the aims set out in Article 33(1)(b) of the EC Treaty.

(10) The Community system of information on forest fires established under Article 5 of Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 has permitted the development of Community cooperation on forest fires. The development of that system will provide an effective instrument for better evaluating forest-fire protection measures and for better analysing the causes of fires.

(11) The scheme provided for by Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 should therefore be continued, in particular to strengthen the consistency of forest measures financed in fire-risk zones, to reinforce the fight against the causes of fires and to improve prevention and monitoring systems, and the duration of the scheme should be extended for five years, thus bringing the period of application of the scheme to ten years from 1 January 1992.

(12) The measures to be taken for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission [7].

[7] OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

(13) The financial allocation established by this Regulation covers the full duration of the measure and constitutes the prime reference for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure within the meaning of point 33 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure.

(14) Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 should therefore be amended.

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Article 10(1) and (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 are replaced by the following:

"1. The scheme shall run for 10 years from 1 January 1992.

2. The financial allocation for the implementation of the scheme shall be EUR 50 million for the period 1997 to 2001.

The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial perspective.

3. Before expiry of the period referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the application of this Regulation and a revision proposal covering in particular the environmental, economic and social aspects (qualitative assessment) and the results of a cost-benefit analysis (quantitative assessment)."

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels,

For the European Parliament For the Council

The President The President

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

1. TITLE OF OPERATION

Extension of the schemes to protect forests against atmospheric pollution (Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 - scheme 1) and against fire (Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 - scheme 2)

2. BUDGET HEADING INVOLVED

B2-515 Forestry

3. LEGAL BASIS

Article 175 of the Treaty

4. DESCRIPTION OF THE OPERATION

4.1 General objective

Scheme 1: to improve knowledge of forest health

Scheme 2: to improve knowledge of forest fires, prevention and monitoring.

4.2 Period covered

1997-2001.

5. CLASSIFICATION OF EXPENDITURE OR REVENUE

5.1 Non-compulsory expenditure

5.2 Differentiated appropriations

6. TYPE OF EXPENDITURE OR REVENUE

See point 7.

7. FINANCIAL IMPACT

7.1 Method of calculating total cost of operation (definition of unit costs)

Scheme 1:

-Community contribution of not more than 50% to projects submitted by the Member States to the Commission for the periodic forest health report, intensive monitoring and experiments and pilot projects,

-Community contribution of 100% for coordination, evaluation and monitoring activities,

-the estimated breakdown of Community assistance is as follows: 10% for the periodic report, 65% for intensive surveillance, 15% for pilot projects and 10% for coordination.

Scheme 2:

-Community contribution of not more than 30% or 50% (depending on the degree of forest-fire risk) to projects/programmes submitted by the Member States to the Commission for studies on the causes of forest fires, information campaigns, prevention and monitoring,

-Community contribution of not more than 15%, 30% or 50% (depending on the degree of forest-fire risk) for the continued implementation of the Community system of information on forest fires,

-Community contribution of 100% for coordination, evaluation and monitoring activities,

-the estimated breakdown of Community assistance is as follows: 15% for studies on the causes of forest fires and information campaigns, 45% for prevention, 35% for monitoring and 5% for the information system and coordination.

7.2 Itemised breakdown of cost

The Commission's 1996 proposal was not fully followed by the budgetary authority, with the result that there is a discrepancy between the amount actually allocated and the financial reference amount initially provided for in the Regulations. The following table takes account of the amounts actually allocated in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 and those provided for in the schedule of the 2001 PDB.

CA (EUR million at current prices)

>TABLE POSITION>

7.4 Schedule of commitment and payment appropriations

The following table also reflects actual budget implementation during the period 1997-2000 and the 2001 PDB:

CA (EUR million)

>TABLE POSITION>

8. FRAUD PREVENTION MEASURES

9. ELEMENTS OF COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS

10. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURE (PART A OF SECTION III OF THE GENERAL BUDGET)

On these points, there is no change from the financial statement for the two 1996 proposals for Regulations.