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As requested by the CoR opinion, Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director General for Environment of the European Commission on 21 March 2017 announces at the European Parliament ENVI Committee that the European Commission intends to increase funding in accordance with Article 9(4) LIFE Regulation under the current LIFE programme for nature and biodiversity actions, in support to the Action Plan for improved implementation of the Nature Directives.

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

- reiterates its strong support for LIFE, as an independent, directly managed funding programme, entirely dedicated to the environment and climate change, to be continued after 2020, and for a serious increase in its budget after 2020;

- calls for a delegated act, in accordance with Article 9(4) LIFE Regulation, to increase the allocation of funds to action grants under the LIFE programme for Nature and Biodiversity, and for increasing LIFE's contribution to Natura 2000 funding substantially after 2020;

- recommends maintaining and strengthening the sub-programme on climate in the 2nd LIFE Multiannual Work Programme and after 2020, and strongly reinforcing the role of LIFE in tackling the uneven and inadequate implementation and enforcement of EU environment legislation, by further implementing LIFE integrated projects and the LIFE priority area of Environmental Governance and Information;

- calls for an increase of the co-financing rate in the next LIFE programme and suggests that the ongoing phasing out of the national allocations for the traditional LIFE projects should be re-considered; and calls for further simplification of application and administration procedures;

- calls on the European Commission to consider an appropriate financial model to strengthen marketing of prototypes and solutions developed in LIFE projects to an industrial scale; and to consider extending the financial instruments (PF4EE, NCFF) or introducing a new financial instrument, appropriately funded, with the aim of also attracting investors to the Environment and Resource Efficiency priority area.