A3-0152/94

Resolution on the management of appropriations and financial instruments with a bearing on environmental protection

The European Parliament,

-having regard to Court of Auditors Special Report No. 3/92 concerning the environment,

-having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A3-0152/94),

1.Notes that the Court of Auditors has identified numerous shortcomings in Community action with a bearing on the environment and that many of these failings derive from an inadequate definition of objectives and working methods which is hampering the achievement of sustainable economic progress as laid down in Article B of the Treaty on European Union;

2.Requests the Commission, therefore, to submit a programme to it during the current financial year which will introduce a method of cost/benefit analysis and cost/efficiency assessment of environmental measures;

3.Notes that the financial instruments with a direct bearing on the environment which depend on the Community budget are expanding in both absolute and percentage terms but take many forms and are, by definition, dispersed over a number of sectors; believes that these instruments should be as transparent as possible and be properly monitored;

4.Takes formal note of the Court's criticisms of the management of environmental appropriations in the various sections of the budget and asks the Commission to take the following measures to make good the shortcomings:

(a)lend greater precision to the multiannual programmes by quantifying objectives and particularly those environmental objectives existing within the Community support frameworks and the Structural Funds' operational programmes, and by specifying the financial resources;

(b)define more clearly the basis for selecting the projects to be funded by publishing the parameters employed for the awarding of contracts on the basis of invitations to tender which would gradually take the place of contract by private treaty, and by laying down in its structural programmes the criteria to be respected by regional authorities when they are selecting projects;

(c)make a clear distinction, by means of transparent procedures for the allocation of funding, between the awarding of service contracts and the granting of operating subsidies;

(d)devise coordinating procedures to enable a genuine integration of environment policy with other Community policies;

(e)step up the monitoring and follow-up of action having an impact on the environment with regard to its technical accounting aspects, respect for environmental legislation and the link between investment and the environment by:

-entrusting the Structural Funds' supervisory committees with the task of environmental monitoring by inserting provisions to this effect in the Community support frameworks and operational programmes;

-applying sanctions, including the suspension of funding and recovery of undue payments, for failure to comply with provisions covering funding's intended purpose or environmental regulations;

-including an assessment of the environmental impact of structural measures amongst the ex-post assessments provided for under Article 26 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 4253/88 on the coordination of the Structural Funds;

5.Asks the Court of Auditors to pursue its inquiries by regularly including a chapter on environmental policies in its own annual report;

6.Calls on the Court of Auditors to monitor closely the budgetary management of the European Environment Agency;

7.Calls on the Commission to draw up each year, as an annex to the preliminary draft budget, a document summarizing the appropriations earmarked for the principal areas of the Community budget, including environment policy;

8.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the Court of Auditors.