Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EEC) No 2158/86 on the protection of the Community's forests against fire
Date: 1999-07-22
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: degradation of the environment, environmental cooperation, environmental protection, fire

26.10.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 307 E/33

Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EEC) No
2158/92 on the protection of the Community’s forests against fire

(1999/C 307 E/06)

(Text with EEA relevance)

COM(1999) 379 final (cid:151) 1999/0160(COD)

(Submitted by the Commission on 22 July 1999)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 175 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of
Committee,

the Economic and Social

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty,

(1) Whereas,

since the rural communities,

forest heritage, and in particular

in particular
foresters and stock farmers, who are the main trustees
of Europe’s
their
professional organisations, play a fundamental role in
drawing up regional fire prevention action plans, in prac-
tising preventive silviculture and as first-line firefighters, it
to create the conditions for the effective
is important
participation of
in the protection of
European forests against this abiotic agent;

these people

(2) Whereas the period of application of Council Regulation
(EEC) No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the
expired on 31
Community’s
December 1996;

against

forests

fire (1)

(3) Whereas forests play an essential part

in maintaining
fundamental balances, particularly as regards the soil,
water resources, climate, flora and fauna; whereas those
ecological balances are indispensable for sustainable agri-
culture and the management of rural areas;

(4) Whereas the conservation of

the forest ecosystem is
for economic, ecological and social reasons
important
and contributes,
in particular, towards maintaining the
social situation of those people working in agriculture
and in rural areas;

(5) Whereas the Community and the Member States attach
their forest
particular importance to the protection of
resources and whereas
they have given international
undertakings on the sustainable development of forests
and the protection of forest regions, in particular during
the United Nations World Conference on the environment
and development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and at the
pan-European Ministerial Conferences on the protection
in Strasbourg in 1990 and in
of European forests

in 1993; whereas

Helsinki
the Community scheme
provided for by Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 helps to
fulfil those undertakings;

(6) Whereas, pursuant to Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92, 60
million hectares of forest, equivalent to about a half of
European forests, have been classified as fire-risk zones;

(7) Whereas fires continue to restrict the sustainable devel-

opment of forests in fire-risk zones;

(8) Whereas the Community system of information on forest
fires established under Article 5 of Regulation (EEC) No
2158/92 has permitted the development of Community
cooperation on forest fires; whereas the development of
that system will provide an effective instrument for better
evaluating forest-fire protection measures and for better
analysing the causes of fires;

continued,

to strengthen the

(9) Whereas, therefore, the scheme as provided for by Regu-
in
lation (EEC) No 2158/92 should be
forest
particular
measures financed in fire-risk zones,
to reinforce the
fight against the causes of fires and to improve prevention
and monitoring systems and whereas the duration of the
scheme should be extended for five years, thus bringing
the period of application of the scheme to ten years from
1 January 1992;

consistency of

reference

the prime

(10) Whereas the financial allocation established by this Regu-
the measure and
the full duration of
lation covers
constitutes
the budgetary
authority during the annual budgetary procedure within
Interinstitutional
the meaning of point 33 of
Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European
Parliament,
the Commission on
budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary
procedure;

the Council

and

the

for

(11) Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 should therefore

be amended,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Article 10(1) and (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 are
replaced by the following:

(1) OJ L 217, 31.7.1992, p. 3.

(cid:145)1. The scheme shall run for 10 years from 1 January 1992.

C 307 E/34

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

26.10.1999

2. The financial allocation for

the
scheme shall be EUR 50 million for the period 1997 to
2001.

the implementation of

The annual appropriations
budgetary authority within the limits of
perspective.(cid:146)

shall be authorised by the
the financial

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that
of
the European
Communities.

its publication in the Official

Journal of

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly
applicable in all Member States.