WRITTEN QUESTION E-2447/99 by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission. Errors in the drawing-up of objectives for the municipalities of Lazio.
C 303 E/64 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 24. 10. 2000 (2000/C 303 E/056) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2447/99 by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission (16 December 1999) Subject: Errors in the drawing-up of objectives for the municipalities of Lazio The Lazio regional authorities recently determined which of its municipalities fell under Objective 2 and forwarded the list to the Ministry for the Budget and Economic Planning, which summarised the details of the municipalities selected and forwarded the document to the Commission. As the Commission judged the Italian proposal to be inadmissible, the aforementioned ministry is re-considering the proposals and plans to forward new documentation by the end of the year. The municipalities which are no longer eligible for the former Objective 5b have not been selected for the new Objective 2, but have been granted a phasing-out period which will end in 2005. Given the above: 1. Why has the Commission deemed the Italian proposal to be inadmissible? 2. Could this setback lead to delays in the granting of funds? 3. Can the new list of municipalities to be submitted by the Lazio regional authorities and the ministry also include those formerly covered by Objective 5b, which are currently being phased out, and if so, will the latter also be covered by Objective 2? 4. What is the Commissionís general view on this matter? Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission (1 February 2000) 1. The proposed list of areas eligible for Objective 2 sent by the Italian authorities on 1 October 1999 was found by the Commission to be not acceptable. It was not in compliance with Article 4(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 of 21 June 1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds (1), under which the areas that satisfy the Communityí criteria laid down in Article 4(5) and (6) must contain at least 50 % of the population eligible for Objective 2 assistance in each Member State. The areas put forward by the Italian authorities in line with these criteria, however, contained only 2,19 million people (i. e. only 29,6 % of the total eligible population). 2. The areas eligible for assistance under Objective 2 must be determined before the single program- ming documents (SPDs) can be drafted and negotiated. Any delay in the adoption of the list of eligible areas holds up the adoption of the SPDs and, ultimately, the allocation of funds. Already on 11 October 1999, the Commission called on the Italian authorities to send without delay a revised proposal in compliance with the Regulation. It has still not received any such proposal. 3. It is, therefore, unable to come to a decision regarding the list of eligible areas in the Lazio region. 4. The Commission believes that it is its prerogative to apply equally to all Member States Regulations that have, after extensive discussion and in full knowledge of the facts, been adopted by the Council, with the agreement of Parliament. (1) OJ L 161, 26. 6. 1999