On 26 January 2016, the official starting shot was given for the first six LIFE Integrated Projects (IP), including the Belgian Natura 2000 Integrated Project SCIP. The European Commission also announced that it is investing 63.8 million euros in the very first ‘integrated projects’, which will be funded in the context of the LIFE programme for the environment. These projects have been implemented to help Member States comply with essential EU legislation in four areas: nature, water, air and waste. The aim is to be able to implement the environmental legislation on a wider scale and to increase the effects of funding on regional, multi-regional or national environmental plans.
The six projects selected are together good for a budget of 108.7 million euros, of which 63.8 million euros is funded jointly with the EU. The projects can, in turn, draw on and coordinate in total more than 1 billion euros in additional financing from agricultural and regional EU funds, as well as from national and private funds.
The IP budget 2015 of the European Commission offers support to projects in Belgium, Finland and Italy for their Natura 2000 programme, in Germany and the United Kingdom for their basin maintenance planning, and in Poland for their air quality plan.
The Director General for the Environment, Mr Daniel Calleja, congratulated the project partners on the initiative and on the challenge they have accepted in this first round of this new type of project under the LIFE programme. These projects will also act as examples. He emphasised their importance as catalysts for implementation. The projects will also strengthen the collaboration between and participation of target groups. Finally, the theme of ‘the environment’ will, thanks to this, enjoy a faster entry into other sectors, which can have a favourable effect on the actual implementation of environmental legislation.
The Belgian BNIP project was proposed by Ward Verhaeghe.
