WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2238/98 by Mihail PAPAYANNAKIS to the Commission. Fires in Greece and Sicily
8. 4. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 96/63 (1999/C 96/090) WRITTEN QUESTION P-2238/98 by Mihail Papayannakis (GUE/NGL) to the Commission Subject: Fires in Greece and Sicily (10 July 1998) Given the exceptional situation created in Greece and Sicily by the recent fires (at the beginning of July), will the Commission say: 1. Does it intend to provide extraordinary emergency aid to the affected areas, inter alia, on the basis of Regulation (EEC) 4256/88 which provides for compensation measures in the event of natural disasters? 2. How much progress has the Greek national land register made, and to what factors does it attribute the slow implementation of this scheme? 3. Did the relevant Greek authorities submit to it before 1 November (Article 4 of Regulation (EEC) 2158/92) their plans or programmes aimed at improving the protection of forests from fires, and which ones were submitted for the current year? 4. Has it funded reafforestation in Greece over the last five years and, if so, what area of land is involved and in which regions is it located? Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (21 September 1998) The Commission does not have additional funds with which to take action in the disaster areas. However, by reprogramming measures under the Community Support Framework, appropriations could be allocated to eligible projects on the basis of a proposal from the Greek authorities. The Commission has already explained that starting work on the Greek national land register was delayed because the necessary legal framework and organisational structure (Ktimalogio AE) had to be put in place first. From 1992 to 1997 inclusive, ECU 15,5 million of aid was granted to 66 Greek projects (costing a total of ECU 37,96 million) submitted under Council Regulation (EEC) 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the Communityís forests against fire. Funding in 1998 has so far comprised ECU 2,03 million for 11 projects costing ECU 4,06 million in total. The budgetary authoritiesí constant reduction of the amount of money available for protecting Europeís forests (ECU 23,5 million in 1996, ECU 16 million in 1998) means that the need to fund fire-prevention projects far exceeds the Communityís ability to contribute. In the wake of natural disasters, reafforestation schemes have been part-financed by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund over the past few years in Greece. However, the implementation report does not contain the kind of detailed information asked for in the Honourable Memberís question. (1999/C 96/091) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2244/98 by Allan Macartney (ARE) to the Commission (16 July 1998) Subject: Car imports and registration between Member States Is the Commission aware of problems experienced by independent commercial car dealers in obtaining the type approval certificates from car manufacturers needed to enable dealers to register in their own Member State vehicles they have imported from another Member State? What steps is the Commission taking to ensure that car manufacturers in Member States are meeting their obligation to provide type approval certificates to commercial car dealers?