WRITTEN QUESTION E-2405/99 by Karl-Heinz Florenz (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Suspension of payment of structural funding.
C 280 E/42 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 3. 10. 2000 As regards the more specific questions concerning the use of sewage sludge as an agricultural it does not possess the relevant the Council regrets that 6. fertiliser in the various Member States, information. (1) OJ L 181, 4. 7. 1986. (2000/C 280 E/040) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2405/99 by Karl-Heinz Florenz (PPE-DE) to the Commission Subject: Suspension of payment of structural funding (16 December 1999) In how many cases, and in what instances, has the Commission made the allocation of structural fund appropriations dependent on the Member States in question complying with requirements of Community environmental legislation? In which of these cases has the Commission suspended payment of structural funding? Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission (25 January 2000) Compliance with the whole body of Community legislation constitutes one of the conditions for granting Structural Fund aid. This is, moreover, laid down in the standard clauses included in the various decisions granting Community aid. Non-observance of Community legislation, including that on the environment, can therefore lead to the suspension, or even cancellation of assistance. The procedure for establishing an infringement of Community law is separate from the procedure for suspending and cancelling aid. However, for reasons of consistency, payment of Community aid is, as a matter of principle, suspended after the infringement procedure is initiated (formal notice to the Member State). An aid cannot be suspended on the basis of a complaint or following a simple request to the Member State for information. The Commission can cancel the payment when it establishes, by reasoned opinion, that there has been an infringement of Community law. It should, finally, be stressed that Community aid can be suspended following the formal notice to the Member State (in order to allow investigation of the infringement without putting the Commission in a contradictory situation), whereas cancellation of aid is never decided automatically. Infringements of Community environmental law have led to the suspension of European Regional Development Fund assistance, inter alia, in the following cases: the joint project by Germany and the Netherlands in the Aachen/Heerlen industrial area; a dam at Abrilongo in Portugal; the protection of the Caretta caretta turtle in Greece; and a road project in Algeciras in Spain. With regard to aid from the Guidance Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, no payment has been suspended for non-observance of environmental rules. there may be certain specific conditions within plans or programmes which are not However, in in the single programming themselves grounds for suspension but do affect eligibility. For example, document of the Spanish region Aragon for Objective 5b, the eligibility of irrigation work in sector VIII is conditional upon an agreement between the Commission and those responsible for the measure at national and regional level guaranteeing compliance with Council Directives 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (1) and 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (2). (1) OJ L 103, 25. 4. 1979. (2) OJ L 206, 22. 7. 1992