WRITTEN QUESTION E-2912/97 by Johanna Maij-Weggen (PPE) to the Commission (17 September 1997)

Subject: Netherlands projects in the 'Life' programme

As reported in 'Europa' for 19 July 1997, the European Union has selected 188 programmes to a value of ECU 90 million for the 1997 'Life' programme, including 8 projects to a value of ECU 4.4 million in the Netherlands.

Can the Commission state exactly which 8 projects these are and what amounts have been allocated per project?

Can the Commission state how many applications the Netherlands had submitted in total, which projects were rejected, why those projects were rejected, and what amounts were spent in respect of each rejected project?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (10 November 1997)

In July 1997 the Commission decided to co-finance, in the framework of the LIFE-II programme, 188 projects in 1997. There are three sectors in the programme 'Third countries', 'Nature' and 'Environment'.

In the sector 'Third countries' the Netherlands did not present proposals.

In the sector 'Nature' 174 proposals were received of which three were from the Netherlands, which corresponds to 1.72 % of the total number of proposals received.

The three 'Nature' projects presented by the Netherlands have a total cost of 3.17 MECU for which a total Community contribution of 1.57 MECU was requested. The Community contribution requested by the Dutch 'Nature' projects corresponded to 1.38 % of the total Community contribution requested by all proposals. One of the three projects was co-financed for 0.37 MECU. This corresponds to 0.85% of the total 1997 Community contribution for 'Nature'.

The proposals for 'Nature' were evaluated by the Commission and the result of this evaluation approved by the Habitats committee which is made up of representatives of the Member States and chaired by the Commission. In total 62 out of the 174 proposals received an Community contribution.

In the sector 'Environment' 514 proposals were received of which 25 were from the Netherlands, which corresponds to 4.86% of the total number of proposals received. The 25 'Environment' projects presented by the Netherlands have a total cost of 65.59 MECU for which a total Community contribution of 14.17 MECU was requested. The Community contribution requested by the Dutch projects corresponded to 5.2% of the total Community contribution requested by all proposals. The Netherlands had seven projects selected, which corresponds to 6.25 % of the total number of selected proposals and 9.1% of the total 1997 Community contribution for 'Environment'.

The 'Environment' proposals were subject to an evaluation procedure in which representatives of the Member States, a panel of external experts and experts of the Commission apply independently a series of commonly agreed criteria to assess the merit of the proposals. On the basis of the results of this evaluation procedure, and in function of the funding available, 112 of the most meriting European projects were presented for the approval of the LIFE 'Environment' management committee which is made up of representatives of the Member States and the Commission. Details on the chosen Dutch projects are sent directly to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat General of the Parliament.