WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1799/98 by José BARROS MOURA to the Commission. Financing of Spain's water supply scheme from Community funds
C 31/82 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 5. 2. 1999 Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (15 July 1998) The Commission is sending direct to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat of Parliament a list of Spanish projects in receipt of part-financing as part of the cross-border cooperation between Spain and France under Interreg II A. The projects in question have been chosen by the cross-border working parties introduced during the last meeting of the Interreg monitoring committee in October 1997, in the Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre regions. In the Basque Country, cross-border projects are funded under the Euskadi-Aquitaine Cooperation Fundí. Provided they meet the eligibility requirements and rules of the programme, these projects will be part-financed under Interreg II A. As for the projects involved in transnational cooperation under Interreg II C, and more particularly in the operational programmes for the Mediterranean area, the Commission cannot anticipate in the preparatory phase which projects will be involved, as these programmes have not yet been submitted for approval. (1999/C 31/109) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1799/98 by JosØ Barros Moura (PSE) to the Commission (11 June 1998) Subject: Financing of Spainís water supply scheme from Community funds The (written) answer to my Oral Question H-0466/98 (1) at least represents a step forward by comparison with the Commissionís previous replies, since it now recognizes the existence of a Spanish National Water Supply Schemeí financed by the ERDF, albeit only in part. However, the Commission answer restricts the scope of this approach to the truth by going on to conceal the fact that ERDF funding in Alqueva amounts to only ECU 96. 6 million and not ECU 300 million. This amalgamation of ERDF funding with other Community funding in the Alentejo region clearly makes it more difficult to compare ERDF funding for water supply projects in Portugal and in Spain. Given that, as part of the Spanish National Water Supply Scheme, the Commission intends to invest 13 times more through the ERDF than the amount which the ERDF is investing in Alqueva, and without questioning the volume of funding but merely the different conditions applied to funding in the two countries. I should like once again to put the following questions: 1. Does the Commission believe that it used balanced and impartial methods of analysing the conditions for investment in the above two Member States? 2. Did it investigate the environmental impact of work linked to Spainís National Water Supply Scheme in the Guadiana basin in particular? What preventive measures did it take? 3. Can it provide a list of major projects involving diversions and dams financed under the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund in the Guadiana basin, together with the respective budget? (1) Debates of the European Parliament (May 1998). Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (25 September 1998) The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its answer to his Written Question E-1447/98 (1). (1) OJ C 386, 11. 12. 1998