WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3409/96 by Anita POLLACK to the Commission. Phare programme
Date: 1996-12-05
Institutions: European Parliament, POLLACK
Subjects: Central and Eastern Europe, EU aid, accession to the European Union, action programme, approximation of laws, environmental policy, environmental standard, financing of aid, nuclear safety













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91996E3409

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3409/96 by Anita POLLACK to the Commission. Phare programme  


Official Journal C 105 , 03/04/1997 P. 0072 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-3409/96 by Anita Pollack (PSE) to the Commission (5 December 1996)Subject: Phare programmeCan the Commission give details of projects currently operating in the environment field with assistance from the Community under the Phare programme and those expected to be funded during 1996?Answer given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission (8 January 1997)After a decrease of funding to the environmental sector on budget line B7-500 (Phare) in 1992 and 1993, the allocations to the sector increased in 1994 and 1995 to about 8% of the total budget. This trend is continued for 1996 and is likely to continue in the immediate future. The indicative programmes for later years currently show the figure of 8%.This amount excludes the substantial environmental components included in other sectoral programmes such as energy, as well as the high percentage of environmental funding under the cross-border co-operation programme under budget line B7-502. Cross-border co-operation continues to direct considerable amounts to regional co-operation in infrastructure and environment. The current planning for this budget line B7-502 indicates a percentage of 41% set aside for the environmental sector over the period 1996-1999.Together the budget lines B7-500 and B7-502 comprise 13% of the total budget, which fully meets the request of Parliament to use 10% of the budget for the environmental sector.In line with the Phare environmental strategy, assistance is geared towards assistance in the pre-accession phase for the associated countries. This means in particular assistance in approximation issues, public awareness and investments necessary to meet the acquis communautaire.In 1996 two Commission-driven ('horizontal') programmes were launched, namely a facility for the development of implementation strategies for the approximation in the environment (DISAE), giving technical assistance for approximation of legislation (geared towards implementation and enforcement) and a project preparation fund (PPF), assisting countries to prepare projects for environmental investments by international financing institutes, banks and bilateral donors. The budget (three years) for DISAE is MECU 10 whereas PPF has MECU 15.An amount of MECU 6 under nuclear safety 1996 is entirely reserved for Bulgarian projects (Kozloduy).Some of the funding is not allocated to one particular country but to three or more eligible countries. This funding is in the multi-country programme environmental sector. The programme received MECU 20 and 10 in 1995 and 1996 respectively. A part of the similar multi-country programme energy sector is explicitly devoted to environmental issues such as energy-saving (in 1996 MECU 2,6). It is envisaged that MECU 18-22 per year in the period 1997-1999 be allocated to the environmental sector under the multi-country programme.