Activities of Elisabeth KÖSTINGER related to 2015/2324(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on an EU strategy for the Alpine region
Amendments (38)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 29 a (new)
Citation 29 a (new)
- having regard to the conference in Innsbruck on 17 September 2014 entitled 'Towards the European Strategy for the Alpine Region',
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas agriculture and tourism in the Alpine region have a major impact on the conservation of the environment, traditional landscapes and biodiversity,
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights the importance of the Alpine region as a place for people to live, work and relax in, thanks to the vital contributions made by agriculture and forestry, tourism and craft trades; stresses that these sectors are of crucial value in the sustainable development of the region, as they secure a high-quality food supply, maintain the population in outlying areas, maintain the cultural landscape, and preserve ecosystems by means of sustainable biodiversity, soil and water protection; welcomes the EU Alpine Strategy as a way to improve economic, environmental and social development in the Alpine region;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Maintains that the Alpine region constitutehas a vast reserve of natural and landscape, habitat and economic potential, given the exceptional variety of ecosystems to be found there;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas financial resources should mainly be invested in the core network corridors, the development of local connectivity, in promoting small town centres, and facilitating the accessibility of work and tourist facilities and ensuring essential health serviceis essential for the future development of the alpine regions;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Notes that the Alpine region is Europe’s ‘water tower’ and that the Alps provide enough water to provide up to 90% of the needs of the foothill areas in summer; also notes that the Alps constitute Europe's main biomass reserve; stresses that water is important for hydroelectricity, the irrigation of agricultural land, the sustainable management of forests, preserving biodiversity and the landscape and providing drinking water, which will be even more crucial in coming years in view of climate change; stresses, therefore, the need to step up the exchange of best practices and cross-border cooperation in connection with the Alpine Convention’s Water Management Platform between the national bodies responsible for the management of water and river basins;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Notes that the Alpine region was able at a very early stage to benefit from its waterways by producing hydroelectric power; takes the view that it should be possible to subsidise exchanges of good practice and the modernisation of structures using EU funds, with a view to responding to the growing demand for energy and the influx of tourists;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas, 5 out of 9 TEN-T core corridors, which are crucial for the European and regional development as well as for achieving the goals set out in the Transport White Paper, extend through the Alps and their realisation requires joint and coordinated financial exertions of the Member States until 2030;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Believes that climate change poses serious risks from the point of view of hydrogeological instability and biodiversity and that the melting of glaciers is a further cause of concern; points to the need, therefore, to promote production models based on the circular economy and short cycles in food supplies, with the emphasis on preference for local materials and food, reuse, and service sharing;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes that the mountain farming is exposed to climate-related natural disasters, such as floods, avalanches and mudslides; calls for the promotion of risk prevention measures (for example, flood protection schemes);
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Considers that investment needs to be channelled, as a matter of priority, towards climate change adaptation and, counteracting hydrogeological instability, including and sustainable forest management and agriculture and calls for sufficient financial resources to be made available for effective implementation;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls for the optional quality term 'mountain product' to be introduced promptly, on the basis of practical arrangements, and supports initiatives to develop new high-quality products and more effective safeguards against imitators and pirate producers in connection with products from the Alpine region and protected geographical indications;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Points out that farming in mountain areas is very important for the hydrogeological stability not only of mountain areas but also of plains below them;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Considers it particularly important to give young farmers long-term prospects in order to address rural depopulation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote transnational initiatives to support entrepreneurship, emerging industries and the labour market in agriculture and forestry;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Highlights the importance of agritourism as a source of income for small-scale farmers (e. g. farm holidays); calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish programmes to support investment and entrepreneurship; considers it important to support those farms through specific tourism campaigns;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Member States’ and the participating regions’ competent authorities to adapt their adopted operational programmes in order to ensure that future projects under the EUSALP strategy are promptly implemented and that managing authorities take due account of EUSALP priorities when implementing the operational programmes (e.g. by way of dedicated calls, bonus points or budget earmarking); calls further for the existing territorial cooperation instruments, such as that of the Alpine Space, to be coordinated with the Alpine strategy;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Considers it necessary to tap renewable and alternative energy sources, such as hydroelectric energy and biomass;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Points up the important role of agriculture and rural resources in providing social and educational care for particularly vulnerable people; calls on the Commission to promote social agricultural activities, since, for mountain farmers in particular, they represent a new way of providing alternative services;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Maintains that land use and occupation need to be regulated in order to ensure that land is used sustainablyFinds it regrettable that agricultural land is becoming increasingly scarce due to non-agricultural uses such as road construction, designation of building land and requirements for ecological compensation areas at the expense of the very limited farmland available, particularly in valleys, which in many cases leads to farms being abandoned; calls for the establishment of practical support schemes and requirements to ensure the long-term availability of land for agriculture and forestry use;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls for a holistic approach to the future design and implementation of Alpine transport and environment policy so that the achievement of a common target is not jeopardised by arbitrage and transfer effects;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 d (new)
Paragraph 8 d (new)
8d. Emphasises that the development of new initiatives requires regional solutions and participatory approaches, with harmonisation of existing and new initiatives, in order to maximise benefit for mountain farming in the Alps and reduce administrative barriers; points out that the Alpine Convention, EU cohesion policy and existing EU initiatives must be taken into account;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Considers that the Alpine region can increase its attractiveness for SMEs through better connections;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Maintains that protected areas are a testing-ground for best practice that can be exported to all parts of the Alpine regionparticularly sensitive biosphere for people and nature and consequently only best practice should be applied;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Considers that revenues from tolls and special tolls from the alpine regions for transport projects in the alpine regions should be earmarked. Firstly for the development of the TEN -T alpine corridors, secondly, for the regional access routes and, thirdly, for the local routes;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Determines that regional airports are of great importance for accessibility and for the economic development of regions, therefore a connection to the national railway network in terms of environmental compatibility is crucial;
Amendment 90 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Requests a sufficient amount of rail- road terminals along the corridor in order to promote the goal of shifting freight traffic from road to rail;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls for a macro-regional Alpine strategy that will support the Alps as a location for business and hence allow an economic area and biosphere based on coexistence between nature and people, so as to avoid a further population exodus that would have a negative impact on the Alpine living space and on nature and landscape protection;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Underlines that small and medium-sized businesses — very often family businesses — in tourism, agriculture, commerce, crafts and manufacturing form the core of economic activity in the Alpine region and thus constitute the backbone of the living, cultural and natural environment in the Alps;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Considers that innovation and new technologies, driven by smart specialisation strategies and financed by existing EU funding sources (e.g. the ERDF, the ESF, COSME, Horizon 2020 or Erasmus +), could help generate quality jobs and catalyse the establishment, upscaling and clustering of SMEs, which could, in turn, reverse the depopulation trend in Alpine areasthat is happening in certain areas and territories of the Alpine region;
Amendment 94 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Believes that citizens, local agriculture and forestry stakeholders and local businesses have to be involved in decision- making.
Amendment 99 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Amendment 102 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8a. Draws attention to the Alpine Convention as an already existing international agreement on Alpine protection and sustainable development.
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 e (new)
Paragraph 8 e (new)
8e. Calls for a macro-regional Alpine strategy that will allow sustainable use of land and nature and hence an economic area and biosphere based on coexistence between nature and people, so as to avoid further population exodus that would have a negative impact on nature and landscape protection.
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Supports measures to help ease the pressure on transport infrastructure by staggering school holidays and related holiday periods, by smart road toll design and the provision of incentives by tourism providers during peak travel times and rush hours;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Recalls the importance of promoting the development of sustainable touristic activities in peri-all Alpine lake arearegions;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Calls for renewable and alternative energy sources in the Alpine region to be tapped and for the model of decentralised energy production and energy supply to be expanded, inter alia through smart grid systems;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 b (new)
Paragraph 24 b (new)
24b. Emphasises the importance of hydropower for energy supplies in mountain regions and calls therefore for the local population in the Alps also to be able to manage hydropower and exploit the added value it generates;