WRITTEN QUESTION E-3465/02

by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 December 2002)

Subject: Poseima Environment

In 1993, at the European Parliament's initiative, a budget heading was created in order to provide funding, under the POSEI programmes, for activities relating to environmental protection and nature conservation in the outermost regions. The activities funded in Madeira were concerned in particular with protecting the soil, increasing surveillance in nature reserves, safeguarding the visual aspect of landscapes, training the local people to protect their environment and increasing their environmental awareness.

The added value which those activities brought to Madeira in terms of the local inhabitants' improved quality of life and greater interaction between the environment and the various aspects of socio-economic development is indicative of the need to maintain Community involvement in areas such as waste management, the management of water resources, nature and landscape conservation, environmental education, and so on.

Such involvement has on a number of occasions been requested from the Commission, in particular by means of the 1999 Memoranda and, more recently, in the form of a resolution adopted in Lanzarote at the Seventh Conference of Leaders of the Outermost Regions and forwarded to the Community institutions, concerning the problems of waste management in those regions, with particular reference to waste management.

In its report on the measures intended to implement Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty the Commission acknowledged that one of the main objectives of Community involvement in the outermost regions was protecting the environment and improving the local people's quality of life. However, it has yet to adopt any specific measures in that area.

1. When is the Commission intending to submit a proposal for a relaunch of the environment Poseima?

2. How is the Commission planning to finance the new programme?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(10 February 2003)

The various environmental protection measures to which the Honourable Member refers are among the measures eligible for part-financing by the Strucutural Funds (ERDF and EAGGF) and the Cohesion Fund.

Thus during the period 1994-99 environmental measures were a priority, not only for the Poseima programme, but also for all the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. The total investment effort made throughout the EU under the Structural Funds in the environmental sphere comprised more than EUR 9 billion, or approximately 9 % of the Funds' total for Objective 1.

In the cohesion countries, a key role was played by the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund in developing water infrastructure, resulting in marked improvements in water supply and distribution capacity, as well as expansion of treatment plant networks and capacity. In Portugal, the proportion of the population connected to drinking water networks increased from 61 % in 1989 to 95 % in 1999, and those connected to waste-water treatment plants from 55 % in 1990 to 90 % in 1999. Improvements were also made in the treatment of urban solid waste, the designation and management of protected natural sites, the introduction of specific instruments to combat air pollution and the deterioration of river water due to intensification of agricultural activity.

More specifically, in the cohesion countries the costs of implementing environmental protection legislation are financed to a large extent by the Cohesion Fund, which may part-finance up to 85 % of eligible costs. As regards the allocation of resources from the Fund, it should be emphasised that slightly more was spent on the environment than on transport in the period 1993-1999. For Portugal, resources committed for the period 1993-1999 totalled EUR 3 005 billion, comprising 48 % for transport and 51 % for the environment.

The Cohesion Fund is financing two large-scale projects in Madeira. The first relates to waste management (ETRSU da Meia Serra) and the second comprises the initial phase of a set of measures aimed at optimising water management. The investment involved is substantial and structural in nature (respectively around EUR 114 million and EUR 40 million), and its financial scale exceeds the amounts which could be mobilised under measures of the Poseima type.

The Commission considers that the Structural Funds should contribute, as a priority, to compliance with the environmental standards laid down in the relevant Community Directives. Similarly, in the Member States eligible for the Cohesion Fund, coordination between assistance from the Fund and that from the ERDF should be as extensive as possible.

For the reasons stated above, the Commission does not plan to renew the Poseima programme.

The Commission is nevertheless willing to examine any environmental protection project which takes into account the specific characteristics of the outermost regions and which is eligible under the Structural Funds or the Cohesion Fund.