LIFE is the financial instrument of the EU intended for financing environmental and climate measures, namely the implementation and development of environmental policy and legislation of the Community as well as the integration of environmental and climate measures into other policies. It thus contributes to the continuous development and financing of measures and projects with European added value. The programme will take place from 2014 to 2020. It is laid down through a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council. The suggested entire budget is 3,057,200,000 EUR.
The programme is divided into two sub-programmes: one for the environment and one for climate change, for which the funds will be intended in the 75% : 25% ratio. The sub-programme for the environment and nature has three priority areas: The Environment and the Efficient Use of Resources, Nature and Biodiversity and Environmental Management and Information. The LIFE programme remains the main financial mechanism for the implementation of projects in Natura 2000 areas, the European network of special protection areas, declared in the member states of the European Union with the basic goal of maintaining biodiversity for future generations.
Slovenia has been included in the LIFE programme since 2000. Since 2000, we have obtained 35 projects altogether. This is a successful story for Slovenia, as we have obtained more than 61 million EUR for the projects in the area of nature protection and conservation of biodiversity, together with the Natura 2000 network.
In 2014, the European Commission published a call for applications and in 2015 ended the procedure of choosing projects for which financial resources were given. In this call for applications, Slovenia obtained two new projects with a common value of 5.7 million EUR. The LIFE TO GRASSLANDS project falls within the priority area of Nature and Biodiversity. Both projects are co-financed by the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia.
Data for the EU
After the conclusion of the procedure of allocation of funds carried out by the European Commission, the LIFE committee confirmed the list of project applications on 21 April 2015 that were suggested by the European Commission for the allocation of European resources from the LIFE 2014 call for proposals. The entire value of the sub-programme for the environment for the year 2014 is 165 million euro. The European Commission received 1119 applications altogether, out of which 289 were for the priority area of Nature and Biodiversity, 679 for the priority area of Environment and the Efficient Use of Resources and 151 for the priority area of Environmental Management and Information. On the final list for the allocation of the resources from this sub-programme, there were 107 projects, out of which 41 came from the Nature and Biodiversity area with 55% of resources.
The LIFE Programme: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/index.htm
Data for Slovenia
21 projects from Slovenia responded to the 2014 LIFE invitation to tender. In the sub-programme for the environment, there were 17, out of which 4 were intended for the priority area Nature and Biodiversity, 6 of them were intended for the priority area Environment and the Efficient Use of Resources and 7 for the priority area Environmental Management and Information. In the sub-programme for climate measures, four were registered, but none of them were successful.
Prepared by: Julijana Lebez Lozej, MSc, MOP, Life National Contact Point for Nature and Biodiversity