WRITTEN QUESTION P-1952/03

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(5 June 2003)

Subject: Serious delay in the implementation of the Cohesion Fund in Portugal

The Commission's communications 2003/C 123/03(1) and 2003/C 123/05(2) setting out the main points of decisions to grant financial assistance to Portugal in 2002 under the Cohesion Fund, published in the Official Journal of 24 May, are cause for serious concern.

According to these communications the Commission has approved only five new projects submitted by Portugal for Cohesion Fund assistance in 2002, namely the treatment of solid urban waste in Vale do Ave, water purification in the municipality of Braga (with a spelling error in the original, incidentally), studies on water purification in the Algarve, the integrated management of solid waste by LIPOR, and the IP 6 road section linking Peniche to the IC 1, accounting for total funding of just over EUR 106 million.

If we bear in mind that this total corresponds to budgetary commitments for a number of years, the amount is insignificant compared with the objectives approved by the Council at the Berlin Summit in March 1999.

Bearing in mind that the Commission has repeatedly urged Members of the European Parliament to monitor the implementation of structural funding measures in their constituencies, can it answer the following questions:

1. What amount of budgetary commitments in 2002 does the total value of the five newly approved projects described in the communications represent?

2. What amount of Cohesion Fund budgetary commitments for Portugal in 2003 will allow the country to reach the annual average envisaged by the Berlin European Council for the 2000-2006 programming period?

3. Supposing that the annual distribution of budgetary commitments for projects approved in the future is the same as for the projects already approved, what would the total amount of the Community contribution be for the projects which will have to be approved in 2003 in order to reach the average referred to above?

(1) OJ C 123, 24.5.2003, p. 4.

(2) OJ C 123, 24.5.2003, p. 13.

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(27 June 2003)

As the Honourable Member indicates, Cohesion Fund assistance for the five Portuguese projects adopted in 2002 amounts to EUR 106 million, EUR 85 million of which is assigned to the 2002 budget, with the remainder to be committed in subsequent budget years according to the state of advance of the projects.

On the basis of the midpoint of the indicative bracket applied to the commitment appropriations entered in the budget for each financial year, the resources available for Portugal for 2003 amount to EUR 647 million: EUR 478 million relating to 2003 and EUR 169 million of appropriations for 2002 that could not be used.

The sums committed or in course of commitment amount at the moment to around EUR 200 million. The projects at present under examination could permit a maximum commitment of about EUR 240 million were they all to be adopted in 2003. To absorb the target amount for 2003 Portugal would have to present projects allowing commitment of a further amount in excess of EUR 200 million in order to maintain a reasonable safety margin.

The answer to the Honourable Member's third question depends on the commitment procedures for the Community assistance.

Under the financial implementation rules commitments can be executed in two ways:

- by annual instalments, in the case of projects where the aid is more than EUR 50 million and the project realisation period more than two years;

- otherwise, by a first commitment of 80 % when the project is adopted and a second of the remaining 20 % at a time depending on its state of advance.

In the first case the amount to be charged to each budget year depends on the financial plan drawn up for the project. Thus unless the financial plans are already known it is impossible to determine the value of the projects that will allow the amount available for 2003 to be reached.

In the second case the additional projects likely to be approved in 2003 should permit allocation of assistance of at least EUR 260 million.

The amount to be committed following the approval of the new projects would of course be higher should it not be possible to adopt all the projects now under examination.