Interview met Europarlementariër Haug over nieuw milieuprogramma LIFE (en) - Hoofdinhoud

The EU has substantial environmental and climate legislation, but how do you make it really work? The new LIFE i programme for environment and climate action has a budget of €3.46 billion for 2014-2020 in order to help member states implement EU rules. This includes €864 million for a sub-programme for climate action. MEPs vote on the new LIFE programme 2014-2020 on Thursday 21 November. We asked Jutta Haug i, a German member of the S&D group in charge of steering the plans through EP, for details.

What difference will the new LIFE climate sub-programme make?

The currently on-going LIFE+ programme is already financing projects in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Climate was upgraded to a separate sub-programme to which a quarter of the LIFE budget (i.e. 25% of the €3.46 billion of LIFE) is dedicated.

However LIFE corresponds to only 0.3% of the EU budget, so integrating environment and climate into major EU funds such as the regional or agriculture funds is crucial.

Your report mentions that some member states and regions have difficulties accessing the funds. What could be done to overcome this?

It is true that previous LIFE programming periods revealed disparities among member states in the uptake of available LIFE funds and the on-going LIFE+ programme (2007-2013) did not change this. We have to support member states and regions that encounter difficulties achieving higher project quality.

What are your views on the newly introduced integrated projects which aim to support major environmental projects together with other EU funds?

The new integrated projects under LIFE are a concrete mainstreaming tool to achieve the badly needed integration - as mentioned before. They aim to support, jointly with other EU funds under the lead of LIFE, the efficient implementation of major environmental legislation.

REF. : 20131120STO25806