WRITTEN QUESTION E-1291/98

by Undine-Uta Bloch von Blottnitz (V) to the Commission

(29 April 1998)

Subject: EU funds for the construction of a road through the planned Monte Epomeo nature reserve on Ischia

Last weekend, the municipality of Serrara Fontana on the Mediterranean island of Ischia, near Naples, started to build a wide access road right across Monte Epomeo, the highest point on the island. According to a current draft decree put forward by the national Minister of the Environment, Mr Ronchi, Monte Epomeo is shortly to be designated a Riserva Naturale dello Stato, partly because of its great significance as a resting-place for European migratory birds. The process of declaring it a protected area, however, has been dragging along for months, partly because local hunters fear for the future of hunting for migratory birds on Ischia. The construction work is being supported by EU funding amounting to Lit 1 billion. This funding is actually supposed to have been approved for the creation and maintenance of footpaths, as a tourism measure.

1. Is it correct that the municipality of Serrara is to receive EU funding for building footpaths? If so, what is the precise amount involved?

2. Does the Commission consider that it is permissible for this funding also to be used for building a wide access road right across an area which is to be designated a nature reserve?

3. What possibility does the Commission see of demanding the repayment of funds which may have been put to improper use?

Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission

(25 June 1998)

According to the information in the Commission's possession, which has still to be confirmed, the Italian authorities have granted public aid of ITL 1 175 000 000 (approximately ECU 600 000), 50 % of which is European Regional Development Fund assistance, to a project for the creation of footpaths on Monte Epomeo, Serrara Fontana, under the "Tourism" operational programme for the Italian Objective 1 regions. Of course, this project has to be in accordance with the Community legislation concerning in particular the environment, as well as with the programme in question. The aid cannot be used for other purposes such as the construction of a broad access road to the area concerned.

It is useful to recall that Monte Epomeo is inside the site ITA 370300005 "Corpo centrale dell'Isola di Ischia" that Italy has proposed as a site of Community interest liable to be designated as a special conservation area under Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora(1). According to Article 6 (3) of the Directive, "any plan or project not directly connected with or necessary to the management of the site but likely to have a significant effect thereon ... shall be subject to appropriate assessment of its implications for the site in view of the site's conservation objectives. In the light of the conclusions of the assessment of the implications for the site ... the competent national authorities shall agree to the plan or project only after having ascertained that it will not adversely affect the integrity of the site concerned and, if appropriate, after having obtained the opinion of the general public ".

Part-financing of the project by the Structural Funds is therefore allowed provided that Directive 92/43/EEC (transposed into Italian legislation by Presidential Decree No 357 of 8 September 1997) is complied with. The Commission underlines in addition that Article 24 of the Regulation on coordination of the Structural Funds(2) envisages the reduction, suspension or cancellation of assistance from the Funds in the presence of an irregularity or a significant change which affects the nature or the conditions of implementation of an operation or measure and for which the Commission's approval has not been sought.

The Commission will contact the Italian authorities concerned in order to obtain clarification concerning this project.

(1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2) Regulation (EEC) 4253/88 (OJ L 193, 31.7.1993)