The Commission accepted totally, in part or in principle 59 (including one separate vote) of the 76 amendments proposed by the European Parliament in the first reading. 35 of these 59 amendments are incorporated in the Common Position. The Commission accepted all amendments which led to further clarifications on the links to Directive 2000/60/EC, on the importance of climate change considerations and on the use of existing instruments.
The Commission rejected, in particular, amendments which limited the application of the Directive to floods with specific causes, which introduced too detailed requirements or which could create unclear legal situations.
The Commission considers that the Common Position, adopted unanimously by the Council, represents an improvement on the flood risk management plans and on international cooperation and can therefore support it. The Commission recognises that there are outstanding concerns relating to delay of the considerations of potential future developments, including climate change, in the preliminary flood risk assessment and that there have been modifications of coordination requirements with Directive 2000/60/EC.
The Commission made two statements for inclusion in the Council minutes:
- on climate change: the Commission regrets that the political agreement did not include a text which would have ensured that the impact of climate change on flood risk was properly assessed and considered;
- on the correlation table: the Commission wishes to highlight its proposal, in accordance with the objectives of the inter-institutional agreement on better lawmaking, concerning the establishment by the
Member States of tables that demonstrate the correlation between the Directive and the transposition measures taken by the Member States, so as to allow the Commission to verify the conformity of national measures with the provisions in Community legislation. The Commission will not block a political agreement by the Council. The Commission however expects that this issue, which is of a horizontal nature, will be assessed jointly by the institutions.