WRITTEN QUESTION E-2071/01

by Raina Echerer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(13 July 2001)

Subject: Funding for the Life-Environment programme

The European Council set the funding for the Life-Environment programme at EUR 610 million for the period 2000-2004. In view of the importance of the programme, Parliament increased that funding to EUR 680 million.

At the meeting of the management committee for the Life-Environment programme held on 18 June 2001 a decision was taken to award funding of EUR 62 million for environmental projects in the years 2000/2001. If funding had been awarded in accordance with the Parliament decision, that figure could certainly have been increased to EUR 82 million. At the meeting of the management committee the European Commission argued that too few project proposals had been submitted. In fact, many projects which have been favourably assessed never get off the ground, since they allegedly fail to meet the organisational and administrative conditions governing the disbursement of a large volume of funding. For that reason, appropriations totalling EUR 20 million have been returned to the general budget and will thus lapse.

How many projects were submitted for approval to the meeting of the management committee for the Life-Environment programme held on 18 June 2001, how many of those achieved the requisite rating of 41 points or more, and how many projects were actually granted funding?

What are the reasons for the rejection of projects which have been favourably assessed?

Will the full volume of appropriations, EUR 680 million, be utilised? It not, why not, if a sufficient number of suitable proposals have been submitted?

Does the European Commission feel bound by Parliament's decisions concerning funding for the Life-Environment programme?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(7 September 2001)

The total budget for the financial instrument for the environment (LIFE) for the period 2000-2004 is EUR 640 million.

The Commission has given the following reasons for its decision: Altogether, 369 projects were deemed eligible and of these, 157 achieved a rating of 41 points or more. A provisional list of 136 projects was drawn up and presented to the Member States on 14 March 2001. These projects met the required standard for cofinancing. The total figure for the list was EUR 89,3 million, a sum equivalent to the budget provision, plus 10 %.

The projects on the shortlist were selected because of the number of points they had and the Commission's previous practice of proposing a shortlist exceeding Community cofinancing possibilities by 10 %.

In the weeks preceding the management committee meeting several projects were withdrawn or rejected the changes proposed by the Commission to make them acceptable. The number of projects on the list dropped to 116, for cofinancing totalling EUR 62,4 million.

The Commission explained that it had decided not to add other eligible projects to the list so as to avoid financing projects which did not meet the quality requirements and because this would have given it a great deal of extra work.

The Commission feels bound by Parliament's decision provided that the projects submitted meet the required standard for Community cofinancing and that it has the resources to manage them.

The Commission would draw the Honourable Member's attention to the fact that the administrative burden of project management has been made heavier by the fact that many projects have not kept to their schedules or fulfilled their commitments. This is mainly because they were not well planned from the beginning, so many changes and adjustments have had to be made when they were already in progress. Many projects have not obtained the expected results, which has led to a high rate of decommitment of allocated resources. This clearly shows that in order to reduce the risk of failure, it is important to ensure from the outset that projects are coherent and of a very high standard.