Only a few days after the failure of the widely discussed United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mrs. Rodi Kratsa, troubled by climate irregularities at the ski resorts of european countries and the large number of closed ski centers in Greece due to limited amount of snow cover, posed a question to the European Commission raising the issue of the impact of climate change on winter tourism. Mrs. Kratsa will also be discussing the issue with Mayors and the President of the Regional Council of the touristic region of Savoie - located at the French Alpes - where she is at the moment, as well as with regional authorities of ski centers in Greece.
The MEP underlines that, according to the recent European Commission White Paper entitled “Adapting to climate change: Towards a European framework for action”, the severity of the repercussions of climate change on those regions - repercussions already visible - is worryingly high. The paper also stresses that the tourism sector is expected to experience major difficulties due to the decreasing snow cover. However, during the programming period 2007-2013, the amounts earmarked for environmental projects and programmes by the EU Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund have doubled in comparison with the previous period. These funds come up to almost € 100 billion (€ 3.8 billion for supporting tourist services and € 1.1 billion for the exploitation of natural resources), demonstrating that the cohesion policy can contribute essentially in supporting adaptation and mitigation initiatives to address the negative impact at regional level. Noting this increase of programmes and funds to this end, Mrs. Kratsa asked the Commission whether such initiatives and financing towards touristic regions or ski centres at affected alpine areas have already been included in the planning as well as which regions, if any, have already developed such projects.
The Greek MEP also proposed the expansion of the consultation procedure with representatives of affected sectors - among which the winter tourism sector - at the planning out of new policies. “It is indispensable that the interested sectors develop strategies and run a cost-benefit analysis of the adaptation measures so that the parameters in question be taken into account in the future financial decisions”. Mrs. Kratsa also demanded information particularly on whether the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP), which already includes investment proposals related to climate change, has taken into account the winter alpine tourism activity.
By: N. Peter Kramer
