Brussels, 29/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - Terry Wynn (Labour, UK), Chair of the EP Committee on Budgets, said on Wednesday that Parliament was prepared to support the emergency measures proposed by the Commission to assist the victims of the recent floods in central Europe. Mr Wynn observed that funds existed in the current budget (2002), but added that he feared this solution might by rejected by the Council of Ministers.
Concerning the creation of a permanent budget heading to deal with the consequences of natural disasters, Mr Wynn hinted that Parliament would prefer to approve one-off actions to cover the costs of future natural disasters. He argued that the unforeseeable nature of natural disasters makes debatable the idea of freezing Community funds in future budgets. "The question is not whether or not the institutions can create a new budget heading. They have to find a way to react rapidly", concluded Mr Wynn.
CDU/CSU Members of the EP propose a package of immediate measures
Hartmut Nassauer and Markus Ferber have put before the EP a package of immediate measures which they hope to see approved at the plenary session next week in Strasbourg (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4, for more on the request for extraordinary aid by Francis Wurtz, Chair of the United Left/Nordic Green Left group). The CDU/CSU Members propose in particular: - immediate aid of € 1 billion taken from resources available under the budget for 2002. According to the German MEPs, this amount could be made available quite quickly through the adoption of a supplementary budget; - aid of € 550 million for farmers in the affected regions, through early direct payments; - the use of the Structural Funds performance reserve and full use of credits not yet committed under the Structural Funds, with a reduced co-financing rate. Like the European Commission, the CDU/CSU Members of the EP consider that this could amount to aid of € 1.2 billion for Germany alone; - new EIB low-interest loans of up to € 5 billion; - creation of a European disaster fund, through the approval of an appropriate legal base and budget amounts that could come from reserve; - reallocation of credits earmarked for the preparation of the accession of the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the EU.
Also in the EPP/ED group, Marilies Flemming (Austria, ÖVP) insisted on the early creation of a disaster fund. "In the future, environmental disasters will occur everywhere. There is no such thing as 'geographical safety' any more, because global warming does not affect certain territories alone", asserted the MEP. She particularly urged the United States and Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol which, she noted, is only a first step.
Liberal group Chair Graham Watson, who was in Prague on Tuesday to appraise the extent of the damage, welcomed the European Commission proposals, and in particular the fact that the Commission has made no distinction between the EU Member States and the accession countries affected by the floods. "If we are to support a standing disaster relief fund, it will have to be unbureaucratic, adequately resourced and targeted at the worst affected areas", commented the British Liberal Democrat. He added: "We will have to consider carefully what areas of the budget would lose out to ensure adequate resources."