WRITTEN QUESTION P-1491/02

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(22 May 2002)

Subject: Execution of the RURIS (rural development) programme in Portugal

According to a report published in a Portuguese daily newspaper the Commission is to impose a fine of around EUR 4,6 million on Portugal because of the low level of execution of the RURIS (Rural Development) programme in 2001, which did not reach the minimum of 75 % required under

Regulation (EC) No 1750/1999(1). According to the same source, execution was around 70 %. It would appear that Portugal committed about EUR 197 million of the 207 million earmarked for 2001 in the 3rd Community Support Framework, equivalent to execution of 95 %. The Commission apparently based its calculations on Portugal's request for EUR 281 million for 2001, with a view to including the EUR 70 million unused in 2000. All this leads one to believe that there is a connection between the low level of execution of the rural development programme and the delay in the Commission's submission of the original proposals.

In view of all this, can the Commission say:

- what information it has regarding this and other similar situations in the use of the appropriations under the 3rd Community Support Framework;

- what solutions it envisages to remedy this situation?

(1) OJ L 214, 13.8.1999, p. 31.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(14 June 2002)

By a decision of 22 November 2000(1) the Commission approved the rural development programme for Mainland Portugal (RURIS) for 2000-2006 transmitted by the Portuguese authorities in January 2000. Part-financed by the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, it has four strands: early retirement, less favoured areas (compensatory allowances), agri-environment, afforestation of agricultural land.

All other rural development measures in Portugal, as in all Objective 1 regions, are part-financed by the EAGGF Guidance Section and included in multi-fund programmes falling within the 3rd Community support framework. The financial rules for the two EAGGF Sections are very different.

The execution rate of 95 % for 2001 refers to total expenditure by Portugal on the three rural development plans part-financed by EAGGF Guarantee: Mainland, Azores, Madeira. But the expenditure forecasts presented for that year had been higher and this explains the EUR 4,58 million reduction in the overall amount for Portugal for 2002, in line with Article 39(3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1750/1999 of 23 July 1999 laying down detailed rules for application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the EAGGF(2) (replaced by Commission Regulation (EC) No 445/2002 of 26 February 2002(3)).

Article 39(3), which has been applied to other Member States, states that where expenditure actually incurred by a Member State in a given financial year is less than 75 % of the amounts notified to the Commission under Article 37 of the Regulation the expenditure to be recognised for the next financial year is to be reduced by a third of the difference between that threshold and the actual expenditure incurred during the given year.

The penalty is an outcome of the disparity between forecast and actual expenditure and not of the execution rate by comparison with the financial plan.

To avoid recurrence of the situation the Commission advises Member States to present expenditure estimates that are as accurate as possible. This also helps towards optimum financial resource utilisation.

(1) C(2000)3368.

(2) OJ L 214, 13.8.1999.

(3) OJ L 74, 15.3.2002.