WRITTEN QUESTION P-3374/00

by Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR) to the Commission

(25 October 2000)

Subject: Civil protection and natural disasters

The recent dramatic events that have hit residents of the Po basin and the south of Italy, last year's environmental disasters in France and other EU countries and the damage caused this summer by fires demonstrate the need to improve communication between the various departments in Member States responsible for civil protection. There is an urgent need, in particular, to divide up and coordinate available resources with a view to ensuring that financial, medical and psycho-social interventions are well coordinated, especially for vulnerable sections of the populations such as the ill, the young and the elderly.

Does the Commission intend to make sure that a possible European intervention force, which would join the numerous help centres and crisis management units and committees under EU authority, operates in a coordinated and consistent manner?

Can the Commission state whether it has already drawn up plans for coordination between the Commission and the Member States, between its own various Directorates-General and between the civil protection and volunteer organisations operating in the Member States in the event of a serious emergency?

Can the Commission state whether it plans to give priority to the regions which have been particularly badly hit when a decision is next taken on those Italian regions eligible under the Structural Funds?

Does the Commission intend, in the longer term, to reinstate the budget line urgent aid for natural disasters which was removed several years ago but mentioned on 30 March 2000 in a Parliament resolution on the guidelines for the 2001 budget procedure Section III Commission,

requesting the reinstatement in the Commission's budget of a budget line designed to help those in the European Union who had suffered natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, coastal erosion or landslides? Does it intend, specifically, to prioritise the funding of psychological support measures for victims of disasters of this kind?

Can the Commission state what consideration has been given to the issue of the environmental consequences of hydrogeological disruption in at-risk areas?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(4 December 2000)

The Commission deeply regrets the serious damage and loss of life that have tragically taken place in the North-West of Italy.

As regards the coordination between the Member States and, in particular, between the civil-defence intervention teams in the Member States, the Commission would ask the Honourable Member to refer to the proposal for a Council Decision of 27 September 2000 establishing a Commission mechanism for the coordination of Civil Protection intervention in the event of emergencies(1).

Moreover the list of eligible regions covered by Structural-Fund objective No 1 has been settled for the entire 2000-2006 period and can therefore not be altered.

On 27 July 2000 the Commission adopted a list of the Italian areas that are eligible under objective No 2 of said funds. That list is likewise valid up to 31 December 2006. However, in pursuance of Article 4(11) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/99 of 21 June 1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds(2), the Commission, acting on a proposal from a Member State, may, where there is a serious crisis in a region, amend a list of areas during 2003 without, however, increasing the total eligible population of each region concerned. On this occasion account could indeed be taken of the particularly hard hit regions and territories within Italy.

As regards the period beyond 2006, the Commission will, during January 2001, adopt the second report on cohesion, which will launch the debate on the future of the Community's regional policy.

As the Commission explained to Parliament on 25 October 2000(3), with regard to financial help for affected areas and reinstating the budget line for emergency aid in the event of natural disasters: since there are other possible means of Community support and in view of the financial and human resources available, it considers that other types of action would require a higher priority at this stage.

Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(4) amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997(5), the environmental impact assessment (EIA) Directive does not cover cases of natural catastrophes.

(1) COM(2000) 593 final.

(2) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999.

(3) Debates of the European Parliament (October 2000).

(4) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.

(5) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997.