WRITTEN QUESTION P-3931/03 by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission. Rehabilitation of areas devastated by the summer 2003 forest fires in Portugal.
Date: 2003-12-16
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Portugal, Structural Funds, disaster area, environmental policy, fire, regional policy, rural development, support policy

20.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 70 E/267

Answer given by Mme Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(15 December 2003)

All current 15 Member States have some forms of minimum income provision for older people. These may
take the form of a flat-rate pension based on residency (Netherlands, Denmark), a minimum contributory
pension (subject to a minimum number of contribution years) or a fully means-tested social assistance type
benefit. Various provisions may co-exist within a single Member State.

The joint report of the Council and the Commission on adequate and sustainable pensions adopted in
March 2003 (1) summarises in table 1 information obtained from the Member States’ authorities on such
minimum income guarantees for older people. The table indicates for each Member State whether the
provision of such guaranteed income is conditional on a means test or not. More information can be
obtained from the Missoc report 2001 ‘Social protection in the EU Member States and the EEA’, European
Commission (2).

(1) Available on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-prot/pensions/index_en.htm
(2) Available on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/missoc/index_en.html

(2004/C 70 E/291)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3931/03

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(16 December 2003)

Subject: Rehabilitation of areas devastated by the summer 2003 forest fires in Portugal

The summer 2003 forest fires in Portugal devastated 410 000 hectares, i.e. 5 % of Portugal’s landmass and
12 % of its woodlands, destroying numerous Natura 2000 Network areas, various cork oak, holm oak and
oak forests, causing numerous deaths, destroying homes, killing animals and destroying crops in some of
the country’s most fragile and deprived rural regions.

Support provided under the aegis of the Solidarity Fund, although extremely useful, is nowhere like equal
to the enormous task of rehabilitating incalculably valuable natural heritage on this scale, and a rural
economy which is under threat of total disappearance.

At the Budgetary Committee meeting which discussed the Solidarity Fund contribution to Portugal, it was
claimed that a total of EUR 180 million was going to be reprogrammed from Portuguese Structural Funds
to cope with the challenge.

Could the Commission explain:

1. Why amounts programmed for the 2000-2003 Structural Funds, and not yet taken up, cannot be

reprogrammed to this end?

2. Whether the Portuguese authorities have already submitted specific proposals for reprogramming the
EUR 180 million, and whether this amount is earmarked for rehabilitating the natural heritage and the
rural economy of the areas devastated?

3. What other means it thinks could be used to support this rehabilitation which, while of direct concern

to Portugal, is of no less concern to Europe?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(14 January 2004)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.