On Thursday 29 April, the European Parliament endorsed, without a vote, the political agreement reached in December 2020 between Parliament’s negotiators and the EU Council Presidency, assisted by the Commission, on the LIFE 2021-2027 regulation, the only financial instrument specifically dedicated to the environment and climate action in the EU budget (see EUROPE 12626/9).
LIFE will be allocated €5.432 billion (current prices), of which €3.5 billion will go to environmental projects and €1.9 billion to climate action. It will fund projects in four areas: nature, biodiversity, climate action, and now clean energy. LIFE will contribute 7.5% of the annual EU budget to biodiversity targets from 2024, and 10% in 2026 and 2027.
The LIFE budget represents a doubling of resources compared to the previous programme. However, this is €18 million less than the amount initially proposed by the Commission.
“I hope that later on we will have more money when we see the progress made”, said rapporteur Nils Torvalds (Renew Europe, Finland) during the plenary debate.
He nevertheless welcomed the compromise, stressing that LIFE 2021-2027 is “truly an expression of environmental and climate ambitions” in a particular programme in that it involves citizens in its implementation and derives its legitimacy from this.
Mr Torvalds paid tribute to the former rapporteurs, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy and Fredrick Federley, who had led the negotiations during the previous legislature, and to the German EU Council Presidency for its pragmatism.
Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius welcomed “a balanced compromise” on “a flexible programme that will contribute to the European Green Deal, in particular, the biodiversity strategy, the zero pollution, non-toxic environment ambition, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and climate neutrality by 2050”.
The LIFE regulation will enter into force retroactively from 1 January 2021 and will repeal Regulation (EU) 1293/2013. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)