WRITTEN QUESTION E-1912/96 by Gastone Parigi (NI) to the Commission (11 July 1996)

Subject: Environmental disaster in Carnia

The exceptional weather conditions which recently wrought havoc in Carnia, upper Friuli, caused major damage to domestic and international road and rail links, as well as to bridges and many homes and production facilities.

This disaster also claimed a number of victims and forced many local inhabitants to take refuge in emergency centres set up by the civil defence services.

Although the Italian authorities have reacted quickly in providing aid, the amounts allocated to date are totally inadequate in view of the extent of the damage caused - not least to the environment - and the hardships to which the local population has been exposed.

Given the above, would the Commission agree that the Community should as a matter of urgency provide financial aid for rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the areas affected?

Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission (13 September 1996)

The Commission wishes to express its full sympathy to the Italian people severely hit by the very bad weather which devastated Upper Friuli in June 1996.

The Commission regrets that there are no appropriations for the current year for Community emergency aid to disaster victims in the Community, the aim of which is specifically to provide rapid and tangible assistance to European citizens affected by exceptionally serious events, as a token entry was made in budget heading (B4-3400) when Parliament adopted the 1996 budget. In June 1996, the Commission proposed to the budgetary authority that the heading in question be increased by ECU 1 million by way of exception. Parliament's Committee on Budgets reduced this amount to ECU 300 000, which it wished to see allocated to Ireland following the serious floods in January 1996.

With regard to possible Structural Fund assistance for Objective 5b regions, it should be noted that, irrespective of the special attention which the Commission pays to natural disasters, Community resources have been allocated definitively for the period 1994-99, without provision being made for financial reserves to increase, where necessary, the allocation of a specific programme. The single programming document(SPD) for the Objective 5b areas in Friuli-Venezia, which have been allocated ECU 44 million for 1994-99, can receive additional resources only as a result of the index-linking of Community resources, which at present amount to ECU 921 000.

In order to repair the damage caused by these disastrous floods, the Commission is prepared in the partnership context, and notably in the SPD monitoring committee, to consider proposals put forward by the Italian authorities to finance the renewal of the damaged agricultural and forestry resources, the protection of the environment, maintenance of rural areas and the improvement of the rural infrastructure by allocating all or part of the resources resulting from index-linking or by amending the SPD so as to transfer resources from the amount allocated to existing measures.

For the period 1994-99 the SPD already provides for ECU 11.38 million public resources (including ECU 2.84 million from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guidance Section) for measures to protect the soil and to prevent hydrogeological damage and floods. The Commission, in the partnership context, would support a proposal from the Italian authorities setting out in advance annual forecasts for the use of these resources.