Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-240"
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"en.20030212.8.3-240"2
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". – Mr President, let me first thank the rapporteur, Mrs Redondo, for her report concerning the Commission's 'Forest Focus' proposal for a regulation on monitoring of forests and environmental interactions
The proposal aims to contribute to the protection of the Community’s forests by means of monitoring. It builds on the achievements of the two Council regulations on the protection of the Community's forests against air pollution and fires, which expired at the end of last year. However, the proposal broadens the scope to include new environmental issues such as biodiversity, climate change, carbon sequestration and soils.
The protection of forests and the enhancement of their multifunctional role are matters of particular importance and urgency in the Union. The Community and the Member States are committed to implementing internationally agreed activities and to set up monitoring and reporting systems. Sound political decisions have to be based on reliable information.
We need harmonised and comprehensive long-term monitoring of forests at Community level. It is essential in order to provide information on the temporal and spatial variation in the condition of forests. Experience from the previous forest monitoring scheme shows that the harmonisation of data collection is of major importance.
There are two key issues which deserve special attention. Firstly, comitology. The report considers whether the principle of subsidiarity needs to be reinforced in the context of Forest Focus, and proposes strengthening the role of Member States in the proposed monitoring scheme.
Experience from the previous Community scheme shows that close cooperation between the Commission and the Member States is indeed needed to set up an efficient monitoring scheme. That is why the Commission proposed strengthening the comitology arrangements by incorporating a Management Committee. This is an approach which balances the evident need for greater involvement of the Member States, whilst being proportional to what, in Community terms, is a relatively modest scheme. Our view is that the characteristics of the scheme proposed closely fit the criteria for management committees set out in the Council decision on comitology.
Secondly, I would like to address the important aspect of forest fire prevention measures. Fires have affected forests in many parts of the Community, but in particular in the southern parts of the Community. The Commission takes this seriously and will ensure that all forest fire related measures introduced by the now lapsed Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 will continue to be covered in future by Community legislation. The proposal for 'Forest Focus' and the regulation on rural development together meet these requirements. The activities that were not already covered by the provisions of the regulation on rural development, such as specific studies, and the forest fire information system, are now addressed by 'Forest Focus'. The Commission fully understands Parliament's concerns, which are reflected in those amendments concerning forest fire prevention measures.
However, the Commission regrets that the incorporation of forest fire prevention measures within the 'Forest Focus' proposal cannot be accepted. Our two institutions share the objective of preventing forest fires, but this duplication of measures already covered by the rural development regulation would lead to legal and budgetary uncertainty which may impede our attainment of those objectives. I should like to reassure Members that the approach proposed by the Commission will allow the continuity of the forest fire prevention measures.
The Commission has already urged Member States to incorporate any necessary amendments to their national or regional rural development plans. The question of the budget increase is linked to the issue of fire prevention measures. It follows that just as the Commission does not support additional fire prevention measures within the proposal, nor does it support the proposed budget increase."@en1
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