The European Court of Auditors has recently adopted a special report on "The sustainability and the Commission’s management of the LIFE-Nature projects." LIFE is the EU financial instrument for environmental policy. It aims at contributing to the development, implementation, and updating of Community environmental policy and environmental legislation. Since 1992, LIFE has co-financed over 3000 environmental and nature conservation projects, spending around €2.2 billion of taxpayer’s money.
The aim of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Commission’s management of LIFE third phase (LIFE III) for 2000-2006 whose financial allocation was 957 million euro. During that period 434 projects, for an amount of 436 million euro, were financed by LIFE.
According to the Court, in general, the projects have contributed to the conservation of the targeted species and habitats and they have supported the Member States in their commitment to biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, the Court has identified shortcomings in different phases of project management: selection procedure, implementation and monitoring of projects, dissemination of results and long-term management of project results.
