WRITTEN QUESTION E-4007/03 by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission. Earthquake risk prevention.
Date: 2004-01-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European standard, action programme, building regulations, building safety, civil defence, seismic monitoring, seismology

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3.4.2004

2. On 7 June 2002, after a wide-ranging hearing of experts, the Bundestag rejected damning stages on
environmental and economic grounds and voted by a clear majority for river improvement works in
line with Variant A;

3. The recommendations made by the Danube Commission for the section from Vienna to the Black Sea

provide merely for a navigable channel of 2,5 m during 94 % of the shipping season;

4. Creating a guaranteed draught of 2,5 m for the whole year in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and

Romanian would destroy the last natural river landscape?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(17 February 2004)

The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that the area concerned is designated as
(proposed site of Community importance) according to the Habitats Directive (1). The site
pSCI
DE 7142301 ‘Donauauen zwischen Straubing und Vilshofen’ stretches along the Danube with an area of
4 548 hectares (ha).

Neither the Habitats Directive nor the Birds Directive (2) prohibits projects like water regulating measures.
Article 6 of the Habitats Directive provides procedures and conditions for assessing projects that might
have an impact on protected areas. For the time being, the Commission has no evidence to suspect that
Community legislation has not been respected. It is understood that a number of options have been
considered and the variant A supported by the Bundestag is indeed the most sensitive in environmental
terms.

As regards the Water Framework Directive (3)
(WFD), the Commission supports the recent resolution
adopted by the Plenary of the International Commission for the Protection of the River Danube (ICPDR) on
1 and 2 December 2003 which states,

that the ICPDR:

(a)

(b)

(c)

takes note of the European Commission Proposal on Trans-European Networks (TENs) Guidelines,
specifically stressing in its Explanatory Memorandum the need for compliance of TENs projects
with EU environmental legislation such as the WFD;

stresses that each project has to be subject to a comprehensive integrated environmental impact
assessment and a compliance with the WFD, including the non-deterioration principle;

invites contracting parties to engage in dialogue with their responsible ministries for transport
and ensure agreement on the above.

(1) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora,

OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2) Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds, OJ L 103, 25.4.1979. Directive as

last amended by Commission Directive 91/244/EEC of 6 March 1991, OJ L 115, 8.5.1991.

(3) Directive 2000/60/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for

Community action in the field of water policy, OJ L 327, 22.12.2000.

(2004/C 84 E/0329)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4007/03

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(8 January 2004)

Subject: Earthquake risk prevention

According to press reports (see the 16 December 2003 issue of the newspaper ‘Açoreano Oriental’), the
chairman of the Portuguese Seismic Engineering Society (SPES), in a speech made on the fringe of a

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seminar on ‘at-risk territory’, declared that ‘the European organisations for the study of earthquakes have
tried in vain to alert the European Commission to the need for action to reduce earthquake risks in the
countries most liable to be affected’.

Can the Commission confirm this?

If not, can it explain the nature of its crisis strategy for preventing the consequences of earthquakes?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(17 February 2004)

In the framework of the Community action programme for civil protection, the Commission is developing
a project on damage assessment in order to identify guidelines on how to classify the risk level of buildings
after earthquakes. Experience has shown that private and public buildings need to be classified to protect
the population concerned by preventing it from any post-earthquake damage. The project will be finalised
in September 2004 and its results will be subject to an in-depth examination with the national civil
protection contact points in order to have the guidelines widely adopted.

Moreover, the Commission’s European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA) laboratory of the Joint
Research Centre has since 1992 been developing research on seismic assessment and retrofit of structures
performing pseudo-dynamic reference tests on large/full scale models buildings and other structures.
The work is carried out in collaboration with Member States’ research institutions and aims at calibration
of Eurocode 8, to be approved in the future as the European norm for design of civil structures in seismic
regions.

Availability of harmonized and advanced codes for design of civil engineering constructions in Europe is
considered a key instrument for the realisation of the single market and for increasing competitiveness of
the construction industry, but it is also considered a basic instrument to provide for adequate safety for
new structures as well as to retrofit existing vulnerable ones.

Given the efforts of the Commission and the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) on the
approval of the set of more than 50 European Norms forming the Eurocodes, foreseen by the end of
2006, the Joint Research Centre, both through its institutional programme and through support to the
Directorate-General Enterprise, will continue contributing to further develop the European Norms which
are considered as an important component for the mitigation of the seismic risks in the medium/long
term.

Furthermore, the Commission, through Directorate-General Research, has been funding, since 1986, the
whole spectra of seismic risk research (earthquake engineering and seismology), through the FP3, FP4, FP5
and FP6 Framework Programmes. In the context of the FP6 Research Framework Programme (cid:1) Global
(under negotiation) will bring together
Change, and Ecosystem,
47 partners from European universities, research institutions, industry and the Joint Research Centre.

the integrated project Lessloss (1)

It aims to improve the earthquake resistant design of structures and contribute to the formulation and
improvement of Eurocode 8 (related to construction norms).

Moreover, in the case of an earthquake, the Commission through its Monitoring and Information Centre
can pool the assistance offered by the Member States as it did in the case of the Algerian earthquake in
May 2003 and more recently after the earthquake in Iran in December 2003.

(1) Project relevant to seismic risk assessment and protection against earthquakes.