CELEX: 51990PC0125
Language: en
Date: 1990-05-11
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) ON ACTION BY THE COMMUNITY RELATING TO NATURE CONSERVATION ( ACNAT )

N o C 137/6                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                     6. 6. 90
                                                             II
                                                      (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on action by the Community relating to nature
                                                    conservation (Acnat)
                                                     COM(90) 125 final
                                     (Submitted by the Commission on 21 May 1990)
                                                       (90/C 137/06)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          action programmes of the European Communities on the
                                                                  environment and in the 1987 action programme (4)
                                                                  whose general guidelines were approved by the Council
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             and the representatives of the Governments of the
Economic Community, and in particular Article 13Cs                Member States, it is necessary that the Community
thereof,                                                          contribute financially towards certain specific measures
                                                                  under this Regulation;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                  Whereas it is important that the Community should be
Having regard      to  the   opinion   of   the   European        able to make a contribution towards the maintenance
Parliament,                                                       and re-establishment of seriously threatened biotopes of
                                                                  endangered species, pursuant to Council Directive
                                                                  79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                  birds (*), as last amended by Directive 86/122/EEC ("),
Social Committee,                                                 and towards the maintenance and re-establishment of
                                                                  seriously threatened habitats, pursuant to Council
Whereas, pursuant to Article 2 of the Treaty, the                 Directive . . ./. . . /EEC on the protection of natural and
Community has as its task inter alia to promote                   seminatural habitats and of wild fauna and flora;
throughout the Community a harmonious development
of economic activities, a continuous and balanced
expansion and an increase in stability;                           Whereas it is necessary for the Community to be able to
                                                                  participate in the implementation of measures for
                                                                  conserving or re-establishing endangered              species
Whereas, pursuant to Article 130r (4) of the Treaty, the          pursuant to the aforementioned             Directives, and
Community shall take action relating to the environment           completing actions undertaken with the same aim in the
to the extent to which the objectives of this action can be       Community research programmes;
attained better at Community level than at the level of
the individual Member States, and, without prejudice to
certain measures of a Community nature, the Member                Whereas it is necessary that the Community should,
States shall finance and implement the other measures;            within the limits of the funds available in the budget for
                                                                  these purposes, grant financial support to measures to
                                                                  conserve nature protection zones of Community
Whereas action by the Community relating to the envi-             importance and endangered species, in the context of the
ronment should have as its objective to preserve, protect         implementation           of  Directive  79/409/EEC        and
and improve the quality of the environment, to                    Directive . . . / . . ./EEC;
contribute towards protecting human health, and to
ensure a prudent and rational utilization of natural
resources;                                                        Whereas for reasons of budgetary discipline Community
                                                                  action on the environment must be focused on priority
                                                                  and highly urgent projects;
Whereas, in order to ensure the full achievement of the
objectives set out in the 1973 C), 1977 (2) and 1983 (5)
(') OJ No C 112, 20. 12. 1973, p. 1.                              O OJ No C 328, 7. 12. 1987, p. 1.
O OJ No C 139, 13. 6. 1977, p. 1.                                 0) OJ No L 103, 25. 4. 1979, p. 1.
(') OJ No C 46, 17. 2. 1983, p. 1.                                (') OJ No L 100, 16. 4. 1986, p. 22.
 ---pagebreak--- 6. 6. 90                                   Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 137/7
Whereas it is necessary to create incentives for better              re-establish endangered species pursuant to Directive
nature conservation in the Community, in particular in               79/409/EEC or Directive . . . / . . ./EEC.
regions with only very limited capacity to ensure conser-
vation measures with their own resources;                            2.      The necessary funding shall be entered annually in
                                                                     the general budget of the European Communities.
Whereas, in the absence of applications from a Member
State, the Commission should, in exceptional cases, be                3.    The financial support may be:
able to take the initiative and propose measures to
counter threats of extinction or direct risks of disap-                (i) normally, not more than 50 % of the cost of the
pearance, to meet needs which transcend frontiers or to                     projects;
deal with particularly urgent problems in the context of
the Berne Convention (*) or the Bonn Convention ( 2 );                (ii) by way of exception, not more than 75 % of the cost
                                                                            of projects concerning:
Whereas an Advisory Committee should be set up to
                                                                           — biotopes or habitats of species threatened with
assist the Commission in implementing this Regulation
                                                                                extinction in the Community,
and in particular in selecting the projects for which
financial support may be granted;
                                                                                or
Whereas application of Council Regulation (EEC) No                          — habitats in danger         of disappearance in  the
1872/84 (3) and Council Regulation (EEC) No                                     Community,
2242/87 (4) on action by the Community relating to the
environment has demonstrated the benefits of a                                  or
Community system to support action relating to the envi-
ronment, in this case the field of nature conservation;                     — populations of species threatened with extinction
                                                                                in the Community.
Whereas the latter Regulation should therefore be
replaced, as regards the part concerning nature conser-                                           Article 2
vation, taking account of new requirements,
                                                                      1.     To be eligible for financial support, a project shall
                                                                      be of interest to the Community and of interest in terms
                                                                      of protection of the environment and/or the
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                          management of natural resources.
                                                                     The level of the Community's contribution shall depend
                                Article 1                             on the extent to which it is shown that the project
1.     The Community may grant financial support for:                 concerned corresponds to such interests.
(a) projects providing an incentive towards the main-                 2.     Financial support for the projects referred to in
     tenance or re-establishment of:                                 Article 1 (1) (a) shall be commensurate with the
                                                                      importance of the area to the Community, with the very
                                                                      limited capacity of certain regions to ensure conservation
     — seriously threatened biotopes of endangered                    measures and with the urgency of the need for the
         species which are of particular importance to the            financial support in question.
         Community under Directive 79/409/EEC,
                                                                      3.     Financial support for the projects referred to in
         or                                                           Article 1 (1) (b) shall be commensurate with the urgency
                                                                      of the need to implement the measures and of the need
                                                                      for Community financial support and shall take
     — seriously threatened habitats which are of                     particular acount of their incentive effect in the
         particular importance to the Community under                 Community.
         Directive . . . / . . ./EEC;
(b) projects providing            an incentive     towards the                                    Article 3
     implementation of             measures to     conserve or        1.     Applications for financial support for projects shall
                                                                      be sent to the Commission by the Member States and
(') OJ  No  L 38, 10. 2. 1982, p. 1.                                  shall contain:
O   OJ  No  L 210, 19. 7. 1982, p. 10.
(») OJ  No  L  176, 3. 7. 1984, p. 1.                                — for the projects referred to in Article 1 (1) (a), the
(4) OJ  No  L 207, 29. 7. 1987, p. 8.                                      information specified in the Annex,
 ---pagebreak--- No C 137/8                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                   6. 6. 90
— for the projects referred to in Article 1 (1) (b), the                                      Article 5
     information needed to justify action at Community
                                                                    1.    The Commission shall decide whether to grant or
     level.                                                        refuse financial support for projects after consulting the
                                                                   Advisory Committee referred to in Article 4 and on the
2.      In the absence of suitable applications from a             basis of the opinions delivered by that Committee.
Member State, the Commission may, in exceptional
circumstances, take the initiative to propose measures:            2.     The Commission shall negotiate and conclude the
                                                                    necessary contracts.
(a) relating to species directly threatened with extinction
      in the Community or relating to habitats directly                                       Article 6
      exposed to the risk of disappearance in the
      Community;                                                    Financial support may be granted to natural persons, or
                                                                    to legal persons constituted in accordance with national
(b) relating to       biotopes    or   habitats   transcending      law, who are responsible for the project.
      frontiers;
                                                                    If the creation of a legal entity with the legal capacity to
(c) contributing to the solution of particularly urgent             carry out a project involves additional costs for the
      problems in the context of the Berne Convention or            participants, the project may be carried out simply by
      the Bonn Convention.                                          cooperation between natural or legal persons. In that
                                                                    case, responsibility for complying with the obligations
                                                                    resulting from Community support shall be specified in
                            Article 4                               the contract to be concluded with the Commission.
1.      An Advisory Committee consisting of represen-
tatives of the Member States and chaired by a                                                 Article 7
Commission representative is hereby set up. The                     Recipients of Community financial support shall send the
Committee shall draw up its rules of procedure.                     Commission, each year or as stipulated in the contract, a
                                                                    report on the fulfilment of the commitments towards the
2.      The Commission shall          consult   the   Advisory      Commission, and in particular on the progress of work
Committee on, inter alia:                                           in relation to project and the expenditure incurred in its
                                                                    performance.
  (i) the general conditions governing submission of the
       applications for financial support referred to in                                      Article 8
       Article 3;
                                                                    The Commission shall present an annual report on the
 (ii) any additional criteria to be applied in selecting            implementation of this Regulation to the European
       projects for which applications for financial support        Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social
       have been submitted or in selecting projects falling         Committee.
       within the scope of action proposed by the
       Commission;                                                                            Article 9
(iii) the selection of projects for which financial support         A list of the measures for which Community financial
       is to be granted in accordance with Article 5;               support has been granted shall be published annually in
                                                                    the Official Journal of the European Community.
(iv) the levels of finanical support to be granted to
       projects;                                                                             Article 10
 (v) the priorities to be adopted within the scope defined           1.   This Regulation shall enter into force on the day
                                                                    following its publication in the Official Journal of the
       in Article 1.
                                                                    European Communities.
3.      The Committee shall deliberate on requests for its          It shall apply for five years.
opinion from the Commission. When seeking an opinion
                                                                    2.    The Council, acting by qualified majority on a
from the Committee, the Commission may set a time
                                                                    proposal from the Commission, shall decide whether to
limit by which the opinion is to be delivered. No vote
                                                                    extend or amend this Regulation.
shall be taken at the end of the Committee's deliber-
ations. However, a Committee member may require that                This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
his opinion be recorded in the minutes.                             directly applicable in all Member States.
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     The location of the site in question and, where necessary, a map showing the boundaries of the area
     coveredby theproject
     The importance of the site to the Community for the conservation of nature and, as appropriate, the
     d e g r e e o f t h e n s l ^ t o t h e b i o t o p e s a n d s p e c i e s concerned
     The nature and extent of the problems which the project is intended to resolve, and in particular the nature
     and gravityof the threat
     Adetaileddescnptionoftheproject,andinparticularoftheorgani^ationof                                                             itsmanagementandofthe
     results expected
     Thetimetableforcarrymgouttheproject
     The cost of the project, its viability andthefinancingarrangements proposed
     The e x t e n t t o w h i c h C o m m u n i t y f i n a n c i a l s u p p o r t i s u r g e n t l y n e e d e d i n o r d e r t o i m p l e m e n t t h e project
     A n y o t h e r e v i d e n c e i n s u p p o r t o f theapphcation
     T h e p r o t e c t i o n p r o v i d e d f o r t h e s i t e m q u e s t i o n at present andtheprotectionplanned
     T h e p r o p o s e d m e t h o d o f disseminating theresults of theproject