Trans-European networks in the telecommunications 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 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 take 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 the projects adopted or rejected, specifying the reasons for such rejection; - 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.�