(2004/C 78 E/0710)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3882/03

by Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines (PPE-DE), Bernd Lange (PSE), Karl-Heinz Florenz (PPE-DE) and Ria Oomen-Ruijten (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(16 December 2003)

Subject:   Inspire initiative

EU policies with spatial incidence such as Natura 2000 Network, the Framework Directive on Water and the future policy on Soil Protection, amongst others, need wide environmental information based on cartography in order to be implemented.

The European Parliament urged the Commission to tackle this issue rapidly in its report on the Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection (A5-0354/03), passed on 19 November.

In this sense we welcome the legislative initiative Inspire, to which Commissioners Solbes, Busquin and Wallström engaged themselves in the Memorandum of Agreement of 2002 and the Work Programme of the Commission for 2003.

The information offered by the Commission on the Internet has shown great progress towards the fulfilment of this initiative, thanks to the contributions of public and private bodies and to the support of the Member States and of the accession countries.

We are aware that unless there is a legal mandate, the barriers to further development in the collection of information will not be removed, and consequently the implementation of Community policies with spatial incidence would be significantly delayed. That is why we understand that the initiative Inspire is the appropriate instrument.

Will the Commission adopt the legislative initiative Inspire as intended in the above instruments, and will it keep its promise about the dates indicated in them?

Should this be the case, could the Commission brief us about progress so far on the main lines of the future proposal?

Should this not be the case, could the Commission explain the reasons for the change of position about the dates indicated in the Memorandum of Agreement and in the Work Programme?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(5 February 2004)

The Memorandum of Understanding on Inspire signed in 2002 by the Member of the Commission responsible for Environment, the one responsible for Economic and Financial Affairs and the one responsible for Research serves as a basis for the collaboration between Directorate-General (DG) Environment, Eurostat and the Joint Research Centre to develop the Inspire initiative. The principle objective of Inspire is to make available harmonised sources of geographical information to support the formulation, implementation and evaluation of Community policies.

As explained in the Memorandum of Understanding, the first phase of the initiative is to define a legal framework providing for the co-ordination of the collection, usage of and access to geographical information. The Commission had, consistent with the Memorandum of Understanding, scheduled the adoption of a legal framework for Inspire in its 2003 work programme, which also entailed the elaboration of an extended impact assessment.

However, due to the pressure of other legislative proposals in late 2003, the Commission was obliged to defer its adoption of the Inspire initiative. Furthermore, the extended impact assessment had highlighted issues surrounding the level of ambition of Inspire and the potential investment needs for its implementation, which required some further reflexion.

The Commission has, therefore, carried forward the Inspire proposal to the Commission's 2004 work programme. Inspire remains an independent initiative but ensures that synergies can be developed with other related actions in the spirit of a complementary approach. The issues raised in the impact assesment report on investment needs will be addressed by ensuring that the scope of Inspire is targeted on the key requirements of a Community initiative and by revising the analysis of the impacts accordingly.

Strengthened by the support for Inspire expressed by many stakeholders, the Commission remains committed and is determined to finalise the legal proposal on Inspire for adoption during the second quarter of 2004, as a first step toward the creation of a multi-sectoral framework for handling and accessing information with a spatial dimension based on a common geographical framework.