Trans-European networks: electricity and natural gas domain. Declaration of European interest

Following the opinion of the European Parliament, the Commission amended its proposals as follows: - in cases where the declaration of European interest was granted, the Commission would examine whether the project was eligible for support under one of the Community's financial instruments; - a candidate project could be presented by any interested Member State, by regional or local authorities or by one or several promoters; - following evaluation of the projects by the Commission, the Member States concerned would forward their comments within a maximum of three months; - interested parties would have a period of two months from the publication of projects in the OJ EC to forward any comments to the Commission; - the grant of the declaration of European interest would takes place within six months of the date on which a full dossier was submitted to the Commission; - the Commission would inform the EP annually of projects adopted or rejected, specifying the reasons for such rejection. It would take account of progress achieved in the area of energy infrastructure when drawing up Community energy policy guidelines; - projects should have direct positive effects in the Community and include a description of the economic and social benefits expected. The Commission could not, however, accept the amendments advocating: - inviting the Member States to examine whether projects could be eligible for financial or tax concessions; - amending eligibility conditions, by providing that the project's environmental impact must be acceptable and that the environmental impact study must be carried out outside Community borders in cross-border projects involving a third country.�