WRITTEN QUESTION No. 585/98 by Sören WIBE to the Commission. Publicity campaign for tulips
11. 12. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 386/27 Further to the information provided by the Honourable Member regarding the Rome › Naples high speed railway project, a formal request was sent to the Italian authorities in order to know whether an environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been carried out in accordance with Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (1). The Italian authorities answered in the affirmative. They communicated that on the basis of the EIA carried out by the EIA Commission of the Italian Ministry of environmentí in 1992, the above mentioned Ministry had already given in 1993 an opinion in favour of the project. Nevertheless, since two short sections of the project appeared to have been excluded from the assessment, new information concerning the EIA of these sections was requested from the Italian authorities. On the basis of the new information communicated by the Italian authorities, the Commission can now conclude that, in fact, the approval given in 1993, relying on an environmental impact assessment approved by the EIA Commission of the Ministry of the environment in 1992, concerned only the general project and did not include the two junctions of Rome and Naples. However, the projects of the two junctions and the executive projects of the entire work were later submitted to an environmental impact study which was assessed by Regione Lazio in 1994 and by the Ministry of the environment (EIA Service and Citizens Information) in 1995. They approved the whole project. The stage of public information and consultation appear to have been correctly carried out. In the light of the above, a possible application of Article 186 of the EC Treaty is not relevant. (1) OJ L 175, 5. 7. 1985. (98/C 386/034) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0585/98 by Sören Wibe (PSE) to the Commission (4 March 1998) Subject: Publicity campaign for tulips According to reports in the Swedish media, the Commission is helping to fund a publicity campaign for tulips, which has been organized as a way of dealing with the tougher competition faced by EU flower producers following the 1992 GATT agreement on imports of cut flowers. How much money has the Commission put into this campaign, which is aimed at boosting sales of tulips, and how much money has been put into the campaign in Sweden? Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (6 April 1998) The campaign to promote tulips is part of the Community campaign to promote flowers and live plants, 60 % of which is funded by the Community while the flower trade funds the balance. Dutch flower traders have launched the tulips campaign in several countries, including Sweden. The campaignís entire budget is ECU 417 157, including the Commission contribution of ECU 250 294. The Commission has allocated ECU 88 200 in support of the measure in Sweden. Two programmes presented by Swedish trade organisations were also approved in 1997 and have a total budget of ECU 193 808