WRITTEN QUESTION E-3090/01

by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(13 November 2001)

Subject: URBAN II programmes

At Parliament's request the Commission agreed to increase the number of cities benefiting under the URBAN initiative from 50 to 70. As result of this increase Portugal now has a maximum number of three urban areas eligible under the programme (instead of the original two).

The URBAN II initiative has a budget of EUR 700m, funded exclusively by the ERDF, which allocated EUR 18m for Portugal.

With reference to the three programmes submitted by Portugal (Oporto Gondomar, Lisbon Alcantara and Amadora Damaia and Buraca) can the Commission say:

1. when these programmes will be approved and implemented;

2. whether this will entail the use of the whole amount allocated to Portugal;

3. what conclusions it reached in its evaluation of the extent to which urban and territorial dimensions were taken into account in Objective 1 programming, as a way of assessing the overall contribution of regional policy for the benefit of European cities?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(11 January 2002)

Under the Urban II Community Initiative 70 urban areas are the subject of an integrated development programme which includes measures for economic development, the fight against social exclusion and the improvement of the environment. In Portugal, the three urban areas involved are Lisbon Vale de Alcântara, Amadora Damaia and Buraca and Oporto Gondomar. The aim of these programmes is innovation, promotion of the principle of partnership and the development of an integrated approach.

These three programmes were submitted officially to the Commission on 11 May 2001 and declared eligible on 28 May. Negotiations with the national authorities proceeded well and the programmes were approved in December.

Since expenditure on the programmes is eligible since the date of their submission, some assistance is in progress and their implementation has already started. The sum committed for the three programmes is 19,2 million, which accounts for the whole of the budget allotted by the Commission to this Community Initiative in Portugal.

Chapter I-6 of the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: The results of the programming of the Structural Funds for 2000-2006 (Objective 1)(1) states that the urban priorities selected in the programmes are duly taken into account in the programme complements and that the assistance planned is fully in line with the framework of action for sustainable urban development, which is closer to the Structural Funds programmes than to the European Spatial Development Programme.

Certain programmes have a very marked urban dimension. Some of the topics advanced in the framework of action, whether the fight against exclusion, the exercise of the powers available to the local authorities or the regeneration of the environment, are horizontal in nature and appear in most of the Objective 1 strategies. It should be noted that some programmes are designed to promote complementarity between the Urban Community Initiative and the Objective 1 strategy.

(1) COM(2001) 378 final.