Brussels, 27/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of Wednesday 26 June, an interinstitutional political agreement was found on the future programme LIFE 2014-2020, the only direct EU financial instrument for the environment and climate. The Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers welcomed this breakthrough to be added to its successes. The environmental NGOs were also delighted with the importance granted to safeguarding biodiversity. “The provision of more than €3 billion for the period 2014-2020 is a very positive result for the development and implementation of environment policy and will help promote investment in the green economy both in Ireland and across Europe”, said Phil Hogan, the outgoing president of the Environment Council.
Konstantin Kreiser of Nabu/Birdlife Germany, who is a coordinator of the NGO campaign in favour of LIFE, said it was a good step forward that will make the LIFE programme more effective. Under the compromise, 25% of the total LIFE budget will go to a new sub-programme for climate change and - and here comes the big innovation - at least 55% of the remaining draft budget will be reserved for biodiversity conservation (while, until now, the share reserved for biodiversity was 50%), a percentage that could even be increased to 65% if necessary. This is a victory by the European Parliament that the NGOs, such as Birdlife Europe, supported.
The rate of co-funding for LIFE nature projects will rise from 50 to 60% but, for projects addressing priority species and habitats the rate will remain at 75%, as the Council advocated, given the difficulties that member states have in raising funding during periods of austerity.
The LIFE programme will be accessible to countries and territories overseas where the EU has zones of very rich biodiversity. (AN/transl.jl)