COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1293/2013
Date: 2021-03-17
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, EU financial instrument, EU programme, biodiversity, climate change, climate change policy, environmental cooperation, environmental protection, quality of the environment, sustainable development

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 17.3.2021  COM(2021) 128 final 2018/0209 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1293/2013  
 
2018/0209 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council establishing a Programme for the Environment and Climate Action 
(LIFE) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1293/2013 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document COM(2018) 385 final – 2018/0209 COD): 

18 June 2018 

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social 
Committee: 

17 October 2018  

Date of the opinion of the Committee of the Regions: 

9 October 2018 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

17 April 2019 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

16 March 2021 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The overarching objective of the proposal was to support the transition to a modern, clean and 
more circular economy by ensuring the continuation of the LIFE Programme after 2020. 

The  LIFE  programme  is  the  only  EU  fund  dedicated  solely  to  environmental  and  climate 
objectives.  With  its  relatively  modest  budget,  it  is  targeted  at  a  niche  between  EU 
programmes supporting research and innovation, including their demonstration activities, on 
the one hand and EU programmes financing large-scale deployment on the other hand. Thus 
the programme contributes to close the gap between the development of new knowledge and 
its implementation. 

The proposal followed from the result of the mid-term evaluation of the LIFE programme and 
the related consultation activities.  

It was largely based on the present regulation, with an increase in size and scope to embrace 
the transition to clean energy, currently funded under Horizon 2020. Unlike the current LIFE 
Regulation, the proposal did not contain any detailed provisions on implementation modalities 
but limited itself to defining the broader objectives and project types.  

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3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The Council's position reflects the agreement found in trilogues. It incorporates the horizontal 
provisions  that  were  defined  in  the  framework  of  the  negotiations  on  the  Multiannual 
Financial Framework (MFF). 

In comparison with the first reading of the European Parliament, the Council position includes 
the following main modifications: 

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removing the unlimited duration for the programme; 

proposing a retroactive application of the Regulation as of 1 January 2021, to avoid a 
legal vacuum before its adoption; 

including the programme-specific climate target and the reference to the biodiversity 
ambition; 

reducing  the  budget  envelope,  in  line  with  the  amount  foreseen  in  the  initial 
Commission proposal; 

refining the Commission proposal on cumulative and alternative funding to allow for 
a smooth application of the seal of excellence; 

limitating the support to international agreements for the organisation of multilateral 
conferences; 

removing the provision for the participation of consortia in the call for proposals, in 
line with the current practice, and 

deleting  the  empowerment  of  the  Commission  for  the  definition  of  supplementary 
conditions for the participation of third countries to the programme. 

Overall,  this  agreement  represents  a  balanced  outcome  between  the  positions  of  the  co-
legislators,  preserves  the  Commission’s  initial  objectives,  and  maintains  a  similar  level  of 
ambition as in the Commission proposal.  

4. 

STATEMENTS BY THE COMMISSION 

The Commission has made three statements which can be found in the annex. 

5. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission supports the results of the inter-institutional negotiations and can therefore 
accept the Council's position at first reading. 

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APPENDIX 

Statements by the Commission 

(1) 

Commission’s statement on the programme-specific logo 

The  Commission  regrets  that  the  co-legislators  decided  to  maintain  the  LIFE  logo. 
This runs counter to the horizontal approach of not having programme-specific logos 
under the future long-term budget. The Commission’s intention is to make sure that 
Europeans  can  relate  to  the  Union  as  a  whole  thanks  to  the  use  of  the  single 
European emblem by its different programmes.  

This emblem is common to all EU Institutions and will be an important part of the 
simple,  coherent  and  binding  communication  and  visibility  requirements  across 
programmes.  

For the sake of reaching overall agreement on the programme, the Commission can 
accept  to  maintain  the  LIFE  logo  under  the  condition  that it  remains  limited  to  the 
LIFE programme in the concerned programming period. 

The Commission remains convinced that communication and visibility of EU action 
towards  a  broad  public  is  more  effective  without  programme-specific  logos.  The 
Commission remains at the co-legislators’ disposal to demonstrate this well ahead of 
the negotiations of the subsequent programming period. 

(2) 

Commission’s statement on the ‘no-opinion’ clause  

The Commission recalls that where the legislator departs from the criteria set out in 
Article 2 of the Regulation 182/2011, its choice for a different procedure should be 
justified.  The  Commission  considers  that  the  condition  for  having  recourse  to 
examination  procedure  which  is  that  the  implementing  act  has  "substantial 
implications" relates to the amount of the budget involved and that this condition is 
not fulfilled in the case of the LIFE programme. 

In addition, the Commission underlines that it is contrary to the letter and to the spirit 
of  Regulation  182/2011  (OJ  L  55  of  28.2.2011,  p.  13)  to  invoke  Article  5  §  4, 
subparagraph  2,  point  b)  in  a  systematic  manner.  Recourse  to  this  provision  must 
respond  to  a  specific  need  to  depart  from  the  rule  of  principle,  which  is  that  the 
Commission  may  adopt  a  draft  implementing  act  when  no  opinion  is  delivered. 
Given that it is an exception to the general rule established by Article 5 (4) recourse 
to subparagraph 2, point b) cannot be simply seen as a "discretionary power" of the 
legislator, but must be interpreted in a restrictive manner and thus must be justified. 

(3) 

Commission’s  statement  on  the  contribution  of  the  LIFE  programme  to  the 
biodiversity ambition 

In  line  with  the  Interinstitutional  Agreement  between  the  European  Parliament,  the 
Council  of  the  European  Union  and  the  European  Commission  on  budgetary 
discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, 
as  well  as  on  new  own resources,  including  a  roadmap  towards  the  introduction  of 
new own resources (2018/2070(ACI)), the Commission will set  out,  in  cooperation 
with  the  Council  and  the  Parliament,  an  effective,  transparent  and  comprehensive 
methodology for tracking biodiversity expenditures  in view of working towards the 
ambition  of  providing  7.5%  of  annual  spending  under  the  MFF  to  biodiversity 

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objectives  in  the  year  2024  and  10%  of  annual  spending  under  the  MFF  to 
biodiversity objectives in 2026 and 2027. 

Following  the  definition  of  this  methodology,  the  Commission  will  present  by  31 
July 2022 to the European Parliament and the Council the contributions of the LIFE 
Regulation  to  the  biodiversity  ambition.  The  spending  of  the  LIFE  Programme  on 
biodiversity  objectives  will  be  reported  annually  in  the  programme  statements  of 
operational  expenditures.  Its  contribution  to  the  conservation  status  of  habitats  and 
species will be analysed in the context of the mid-term evaluation foreseen in 2024 
and referred to in Article 19 of the LIFE Regulation”.  

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