Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-13-Speech-1-038"
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"en.20040913.4.1-038"2
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".
Mr President, we are seeing an increasing frequency in natural disasters here in Europe and around the world. As we have seen recently, floods and forest fires wreak havoc, causing human and economic problems and also serious damage to our environment. Of course we are trying to combat these problems.
With regard to forest fires, a series of common measures in the field of prevention, protection and restoration have now been put in place. Our rural development programmes provide support for a wide range of forest activities, providing funds for prevention of fires and restoration of forests damaged by fires, according to priorities decided by the Member States. In Portugal approximately EUR 149 m from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund is available for prevention and restoration for 2000-2006. In Spain the total budget allocated for forestry measures for the same period amounts to EUR 820 million.
The recently created EU Solidarity Fund was established to respond to major disasters which caused direct damage of more than EUR 3 bn or exceeded 0.6% of the affected country's gross national income. Only in very exceptional circumstances can the Solidarity Fund be mobilised for disasters that remain below this high threshold. It has already been mobilised following the huge fires last year in Portugal and Spain and, at their request, it provided EUR 48.5 m for Portugal and EUR 1.3 m for Spain. The Commission has not yet received any requests for 2004.
As you know, the Forest Focus regulation is our most recent instrument to monitor and to implement prevention measures in the field of forest fires, as well as to detect the reasons for their frequency. The financial framework for the implementation of the Forest Focus scheme for 2003-2006 is fixed at EUR 65 m, of which EUR 9 m can be used for fire prevention measures.
Our civil protection assistance mechanism is also proving its worth. In 2003 and 2004 Portugal sent requests for assistance to the EU Monitoring and Information Centre, which then coordinated support offers from other participating countries. Thanks to the mechanism, it was possible to ensure the rapid despatch of aerial forest fire-fighting means to Portugal. In 2003 Portugal accepted the assistance of two aircraft from Italy and three aircraft from Germany. In 2004 Spain supplied three aircraft, France two, Germany two, Greece two and Italy one. Additional assistance was offered by the UK and Norway but was not taken up by Portugal.
Four years ago I expressed my concerns about the increasing number of forest fires and the damage they cause, stating that the risk for forest fires and the vulnerability of our forests have now reached a level beyond which further fires would seriously endanger the ecosystems and their sustainable management. Sadly we saw this happen during last year's heatwave, which hit southern Europe in particular and which culminated in the destruction of large parts of the Portuguese Natura areas.
I wish to conclude by saying that the Commission has taken your resolution of 4 September 2003 on the effects of the summer heatwave into account, and it serves as a very useful compendium for actions and measures on which to base future initiatives."@en1
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