WRITTEN QUESTION E-2702/03 by Bill Miller (PSE) to the Commission. Illegally-sourced timber.
Date: 2003-09-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: deforestation, forestry holding, fraud, import (EU), import restriction, tropical wood

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/155

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(16 October 2003)

The total spending amount of Promise, as foreseen by its legal basis was EUR 25 million, for five years.
The total amount committed was EUR 21 847 032 covering all the period of the programme. An overall
information on the spending in 1998 and 1999 and the indication for expenditure with reference to Italy
is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat.

In 2000, after the mid-term review evaluation made by a group of external experts,
the Promise
programme was redirected towards the eEurope Action plan and in particular the associated benchmarking
exercise and exchange of best practices. In this context, the budget of Promise was devoted to call for
tenders for studies or surveys launched by the Commission and committed according to public
procurement rules. The budget breakdown for 2000, 2001 and 2002 is sent direct to the Honourable
Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat. This includes the names of the contractor and the Member State,
where its seat is established. In the case of the Eurobarometer surveys, the indicated contractor is a Belgian
company which carried out the contract together with its subsidiaries in each Member State.

During the last two years Promise financed three best practices projects in collaboration with presidency
countries; Two ‘e-government’ conferences in Belgium (2001) and Italy (2003) and the ‘eHealth’ Conference
(Greece 2003). Furthermore, one work-shop on eEurope 2005 has been organised in Spain, during the
Spanish Presidency.

The Commission has issued payments for the services received on the basis of invoices and after analysis
and acceptance of the technical reports submitted by the contractors according to standard procedures.

A group of external independent experts are currently in charge of the final evaluation of the programme.
They work on the basis of the terms of reference agreed in the Promise management committee and will
submit their report in November 2003.

(2004/C 78 E/0159)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2702/03

by Bill Miller (PSE) to the Commission

(11 September 2003)

Subject: Illegally-sourced timber

The Commission will be aware that the world’s rainforests are rapidly diminishing, especially in the
Amazon Basin and Indonesia. Much of the timber from these illegal operations finds its way into Europe.

What steps has the Commission taken to outlaw illegally-sourced timber in Europe?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(7 October 2003)

The Commission shares the Honourable Member’s concern at the rate of deforestation of the world’s
rainforests. According to research conducted by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the highest rates
of deforestation are in South-east Asia (0,91 % per annum). Because it has a larger area, the deforestation
rate for the Amazon Basin is less in percentage terms, but similar in absolute terms to that of South-east
Asia, at about 2,5 million hectares (ha) per annum.

C 78 E/156

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

The Union is undoubtedly a market for some of the illegally harvested timber traded from these regions.
However, in the case of South-east Asia, East Asian countries such as China and Japan constitute the main
market for exports of tropical timber. In the Amazon basin most of the timber is consumed internally (cid:1)
one widely quoted estimate being that 80 to 90 % of Brazilian timber is consumed within Brazil. Generally
speaking, the extent to which illegal logging accounts for deforestation is difficult to separate from other
factors such as agricultural expansion and infrastructure development.

law,

logging not only on the environment, but also in undermining good
Aware of the impact of illegal
governance and the rule of
the Commission adopted a Communication entitled ‘Forest Law
Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) -Proposal for an EU Action Plan’ on 21 May 2003 (1). The
Action Plan describes a series of proposed measures to reduce illegal logging in affected countries and to
exclude illegally harvested timber from the Union. These include a proposal for voluntary, but binding
agreements to be made with interested countries, allowing for the identification of legally harvested timber,
including legislation allowing for the exclusion of timber from these countries not identified as being legal
under such agreements. At the time of writing, the Commission is awaiting the views of the Council and
the Parliament on the FLEGT Communication before it can take any substantial further steps in pursuit of
these proposals.

(1) COM(2003) 251 final.

(2004/C 78 E/0160)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2705/03

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 September 2003)

Subject: Renewable energies

The Altener Programme for research, promotion and funding at national level of projects dedicated to the
development of renewable energies was allocated EUR 74 million in funding. Can the Commission indicate
what projects were presented by Italy, which of these received financial support and of how much, and
what results were achieved?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(16 October 2003)

The period for the funding referred to in the Honourable Member’s question is the period of the Altener II
programme from 1998 to 2002. In response, a table is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to
Parliament’s Secretariat. The table is giving details of all proposals which were submitted by proposers
from Italy to the Altener programme for co-financing in the last two years of the Altener II programme
(2001 and 2002). For these two years, this table contains details of those proposals for which funding was
not awarded following evaluation and selection, and of those which were accepted for Community
support. For those proposals which were accepted for support, the table also contains the amount of
Community support to the Italian co-ordination and the location (home town) of the Italian co-ordinator
(plus respective details of any Italian partner). For the first three years of the Altener II programme (1998-
2000), the table contains only those projects with Italian coordinators which received support by the
Community as for this period data regarding proposals that have not been selected are not available.

Every Altener project has to be concluded with a final report which must be approved by the Commission
before final payments are made. These reports normally contain an executive summary together with
details of the actions undertaken during the project and the final outcome of the work. A copy of the
executive summary and/or the final report
for any specific project will be made available to the
Honourable Member on request.