CELEX: 51993PC0053
Language: en
Date: 1993-02-26
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) on operations to promote tropical forests

No C 78 / 8                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                       19 . 3 . 93
                                                                   II
                                                           (Preparatory Acts)
                                                      COMMISSION
                   Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on operations to promote tropical forests
                                                             (93 /C 78 / 05 )
                                                           COM(93 ) 53 final
                                          (Submitted by the Commission on 26 February 1993)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES                                Whereas the Community intends to expand its actions to
                                                                        promote the conserv ation of tropical forests in all appro­
                                                                        priate ways, within the context of its development policy
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                  and using the relevant instruments of development
 Community , and in particular Articles 130 S and 235 ,                 assistance ;
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,
                                                                       Whereas a Community action , complementing Member
                                                                        States ' actions , will facilitate a better realization of the
 Having regard to the opinion of the European                           objectives pursued ;
 Parliament ,
 Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                      Whereas existing financial instruments available to the
 Social Committee ,                                                     Community for development cooperation are not
                                                                        adapted for the support of certain types of appropriate
                                                                       action in the field of tropical forests ;
Whereas the Commission communication to the Council
of 16 October 1989 on 'The conservation of tropical
forests : the role of the Community               set out broad        Whereas       a substantial    commitment     of resources       is
guidelines for Community action in this sphere ;                       required to have a significant impact on tropical forests ;
Whereas the resolution of the Council of Ministers for
Development Cooperation of 29 May 1990 on Tropical                     Whereas it is therefore necessary to set up a permanent
                                                                       framework to execute these actions ;
forests : development aspects established a basis for the
use of development instruments in tropical forest conser­
vation ;
                                                                       Whereas detailed rules for implementation , and in
                                                                       particular the form of action , the recipients of the aid ,
Whereas the European Parliament expressed concern                      and decision procedures should be laid down ; and
over the destruction of tropical forests and the conse­                whereas in order to cover all aspects of sustainable devel­
quences for forest dwellers in many parliamentary resol­               opment which form part of the aim of this regulation , it
utions ;                                                               is necessary to refer to Article 235 as no other specific
                                                                       powers for development policy are provided in the
                                                                       Treaty,
Whereas the European Council of June 1990 in Dublin
called for a programme of action to be drawn up to
counteract the threat to tropical forests ;
                                                                       HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION
Whereas the Community and its Member States were
signatories to the Rio Declaration on Forests in June                                              Article 1
1992 ;
                                                                       The Community shall support actions to promote the
                                                                       conservation and the sustainable management of tropical
                                                                       forests in accordance with the criteria and procedures
(') OJ No C 264 , 16 . 10 . 1989 , p. 1 .                              provided for in this Regulation .
 ---pagebreak---  19. 3 . 93                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No C 78 /9
                           Article 2                             (b) sustainable management of forests designated for the
                                                                     production of timber and other products ;
 1 . Tropical forests shall be defined, for the purposes
of this Regulation, as those forests, savannahs and trees,
and their respective ecosystems, that are found within          (c) involvement of local populations, including forest
the tropics and subtropics in both dry and humid                     dwellers, in the planning and implementation of
                                                                     actions that are to be financed and of national and
climates, including their human populations, whether or
not indigenous, other populations of forest regions who              local forest utilization plans ;
utilize the forest, or whose actions affect the forest.
                                                                (d) capacity-building to address the needs for training,
                                                                     legislation and institutional strengthening in support
2 . Conservation shall be considered, for the purposes               of forest conservation ;
of this Regulation, to include all actions to preserve,
rehabilitate and rationally manage tropical forests .           (e) strategic, adaptive and policy research to provide the
                                                                     necessary knowledge base for activities included in
                                                                     (a), (b) and (c) and to support capacity building acti­
3.      Sustainable forest management is understood as the           vities indicated in (d).
planned utilization of forests in a manner compatible
with the conservation of forest ecosystems for future           2 . Wherever appropriate, actions shall be coordinated
generations.                                                    with and provide support for international programmes
                                                                concerned with tropical forests, such as the Tropical
                                                                Forest Action Plan, and the International Tropical
4. Sustainable development shall be considered as the           Timber Organization .
improvement of the living standards and welfare of the
relevant populations, while maintaining natural assets,
including forests , for the benefit of future generations.      3 . Wherever appropriate, operations shall be carried
                                                                out within the framework of regional organizations and
                                                                international programmes of cooperation.
                           Article 3
 1.     Under this Regulation , the Community shall                                         Article 5
provide financial support or technical expertise for            Funding shall be granted by the Community either
actions which support and encourage the efforts of              autonomously or by means of co-financing with Member
developing countries and their regional organizations to        States, or with multilateral, regional or other organiz­
conserve their tropical forests , in the context of the         ations. In the last case, as far as possible, the character of
sustainable development of those countries and regions .        Community aid shall be maintained.
2 . The financing shall be directed to both public and                                      Article 6
private organizations, including NGOs and represen­
tative associations of indigenous peoples and of other          Community funding shall be in the form of non-reim­
forest dwellers , which include the conservation of             bursable grants .
tropical forests among their stated objectives or regular
activities .
                                                                                            Article 7
                                                                Financial and technical assistance may cover all foreign
3 . Special consideration shall be given to actions in          currency costs and local costs for carrying out projects
support of the conservation of forests which are                and programmes, including, whenever necessary, inte­
considered to be of importance for global effects, such as      grated programmes and sectoral projects.
climate change and loss of biodiversity.
                                                                Systematic efforts shall be made to seek contributions,
                                                                particularly in financial form, from partners (countries,
                           Article 4
                                                                local communities, undertakings, individual recipients) as
1 . The priority given to specific actions will be              far as their means permit and according to the nature of
determined according to the needs of each country as            each operation .
reflected in national development and environment
policies relating to forests . Particular consideration,        The payment of taxes, duties and charges shall be
however, shall be given to actions that promote the             excluded from Community financing.
following :
                                                                Study costs and the short- and long-term use of experts
(a) conservation of forests supported by analysis of the        to assist the recipients and the Commission in devising
     underlying causes of deforestation and measures to         general policies, identifying and preparing operations
     address them ;                                             and monitoring and evaluating them shall normally be
 ---pagebreak---  No C 78 / 10                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                 19 . 3 . 93
covered by Community funds, either as part of the               The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes ; in
financing for individual operations or separately.               addition, each Member State shall have the right to ask
                                                                 to have its position recorded in the minutes.
                         Article 8
                                                                The Commission shall take the utmost account of the
Submission of proposals, participation in calls for tender,     opinion delivered by the committee . It shall inform the
invitations to tender, and purchasing and other contracts       committee of the manner in which its opinion has been
shall be open on equal terms to all natural and legal           taken into account.
persons from Members States and the recipient country
or countries. Such participation may be extended to             3 . Where the Commission finds it necessary or appro­
other developing countries receiving Community aid,             priate to establish further procedures for the execution of
particularly in cases of co-financing or in order to            relevant actions, those measures should be adopted
prevent the cost of the projects from increasing unduly         according to the procedure laid down under para­
as a result of distance, transport difficulties, or delivery    graph 2 .
delays .
                                                                                          Article 11
                         Article 9
                                                                The Commission shall submit a report annually to the
Projects and programmes for which Community funding             Council and to the European Parliament, specifying the
exceeds ECU 2 million and any substantial modifications         actions that have been financed and summarizing their
and possible overruns of approved projects and                  progress and conclusions, to enable them to take stock
programmes which exceed 20 °/o of the amount initially          of the development of activities .
agreed, shall be adopted according to the procedure laid
down in Article 10 (2).
                                                                                         Article 12
                         Article 10                             This Regulation shall be implemented under a coherent
                                                                approach which also includes actions under Council
1 . The Commission shall administer tropical forest             Regulation (EEC) No 443 /92 on financial and technical
cooperation activities.                                         assistance and economic cooperation with , to the
2 . The Commission shall be assisted by an advisory             developing countries of Latin America and Asia, and the
                                                                Fourth Lome Convention .
committee composed of representatives of the Member
States and chaired by the representative of the
Commission .                                                                             Article 13
The representative of the Commission shall submit to the        This Regulation shall enter into force on the day
committee a draft of the measures to be taken . The             following its publication in the Official Journal of the
committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft, within a      European Communities.
time limit which the chairman may lay down according
to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a          This regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
vote .                                                          directly applicable in all Member States .