WRITTEN QUESTION E-2831/99 by Eija-Riitta Korhola (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Evaluations of the current research into climate change.
Date: 2000-01-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU research policy, climate change

C 280 E/142

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.10.2000

(2000/C 280 E/153)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2830/99

by Nicholas Clegg (ELDR) to the Commission

(18 January 2000)

Subject: Annual review of the implementation of the subsidiarity principle

As guardian of the Treaties, could the Commission provide a complete list of EU measures which have
been eliminated or withdrawn as part of the Commission(cid:146)s annual review of the implementation of the
subsidiarity principle? Could the Commission describe how it intends to further improve the application of
the subsidiarity principle in its work?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(22 February 2000)

As the Commission(cid:146)s annual report to the Council on Better Lawmaking indicates (1), the Commission each
year withdraws the proposals which have become obsolete, including for reasons of subsidiarity (in 1999
it withdrew 90 proposals). It proposes the simplification of a number of existing Community rules, largely
in application of the proportionality principle. Since the 1992 Edinburgh European Council, the Com-
mission has presented some 60 simplification proposals, 30 of which have been adopted by the legislative
authority.

the protocol annexed to the EC Treaty. Specifically,

The Commission is also striving to improve the application of the subsidiarity and proportionality
principles by strict application of
it proposes
Community action only where this is necessary or more effective than action by the Member States; it
uses alternatives to legislation and leaves scope for self-regulation, for example in the fields covered by the
it proposes measures which leave as broad as possible a decision-making margin at
social protocol;
national level; it chooses as simple a form of action as possible; it is revising its system of evaluating the
impact of proposals and strengthening the cost/benefit analysis of its initiatives;
it has improved the
arrangements for prior consultation of the parties concerned.

(1)

(cid:145)Better Lawmaking 1996(cid:146) CSF(96) 7, (cid:145)Better Lawmaking 1997(cid:146) COM(97) 626 final and (cid:145)Better Lawmaking 1998(cid:146),
COM(98) 715 final and COM(1999) 526 final.

(2000/C 280 E/154)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2831/99

by Eija-Riitta Korhola (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Evaluations of the current research into climate change

(18 January 2000)

What evaluations have been undertaken by or for the European Commission of the current state of the art
concerning research into climate change in Europe,
in the United States of America, and in other
countries?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(11 February 2000)

The state-of-the-art of climate research on a global scale is evaluated on a periodic basis by the
Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) of the United Nations (UN), where a majority of
Community project coordinators are directly involved. In addition, a major conference (European climate
science conference) was held in Vienna, under the Austrian Presidency in October 1998 at the end of the
Fourth framework programme for RTD (FP4) to review the achievements and assess the state-of-the-art of
Community funded climate research. The proceedings of this conference have been recently published as a
CD-Rom (available from the Research and Technological Development Directorate general (cid:129) see also
(cid:145)Recent results of EC(cid:146)s climate research(cid:146), Eds. Ghazi et al, the Research and Technological Development
publication). Clearly, the European climate science community is playing a leading role in research on a
worldwide basis. This fact was also confirmed by the reports of the Commission(cid:146)s monitoring panel and
the five year assessment panel. One of the improvements recommended is the streamlining of research
towards policy objectives and is now being addressed in the Fifth framework programme (FP5).