The committee adopted the report by Encarnación REDONDO JIMÉNEZ (EPP-ED, E) broadly approving the proposal under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure, subject to a number of amendments as follows:
- greater emphasis should be placed on subsidiarity, with decisions being taken jointly by the Commission and the Member States via the Standing Forestry Committee, which should be responsible for implementing the regulation;
- the definitions in the proposal should correspond to the definitions established by the FAO, which are better suited to the realities of the Member States;
- funding for the period 2003-2006 should be EUR 67 million (rather than EUR 52m as proposed by the Commission) provided that the budgetary authority agrees on the appropriate means of financing under the annual procedure and the Financial Perspective. For the period 2007-2008 the amount should be increased to cover the costs of new actions not yet implemented;
- funding should be increased proportionately in the case of accession of new Member States, and there should be a corresponding adjustment of the financial ceiling without reducing the resources allocated to the current Member States;
- the aims of the scheme should include developing forest fire prevention as well as protection;
- there should be research not only into the impacts but also into the causes of forest fires;
- information on areas at risk must be collected not only at Community level but also at cross-border level, principally in countries bordering the EU Member States, given that fires are very often "imported";
- to raise the profile of Community activities relating to forests, a slogan (·Forest Focus·) should be applied to all such activities, and should be used on posters and in documents and notices. �