WRITTEN QUESTION E-1941/99

by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Commission

(4 November 1999)

Subject: Trans European and Energy networks and the ultraperipheral regions

It is a simple fact that the ultra-peripheral regions are, to all intents and purposes, excluded from access to the current Trans-European and Energy Network Guidelines. These regions are very severely disadvantaged by their remoteness and the scattered nature of their territories, and they merit special treatment.

Does the Commission intend to develop a specific transport and energy policy to meet the needs of these regions, guaranteeing them not merely access as such to the trans-European networks, but a level of access appropriate to the major problems from which they suffer?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(26 November 1999)

The need to link island, landlocked and peripheral regions to the central regions of the Community is laid down in the EC Treaty within the framework of Community action on trans-European networks.

Therefore, both in the transport infrastructures sector and the energy sector, the particular characteristics of these regions have already been included in the guidelines. The fact that ultra-peripheral regions are, geographically speaking, so far away obviously makes it almost impossible to physically interconnect these regions to networks at the centre of Europe.

However, in the Community guidelines for developing the trans-European transport network (Decision No 1692/96/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996(1)), the need to guarantee access to and the linking of ultra-peripheral regions is more specifically taken into account in port and airport networks based on how fragmented and far away these territories are.

The Community guidelines for trans-European energy networks (Decision No 1254/96/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 1996(2)) provide, among their priorities, for the interconnection of isolated electricity networks (for example, by underwater links between islands or towards another closer network) and for the introduction of natural gas into new regions (for example, from an LNG reception terminal.

Development schemes aimed at ultra-peripheral regions at Community level are not limited only to trans-European networks. The Structural Funds (e.g., the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund, the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance) make a considerable contribution in the form of multi-annual development programmes under Objective 1 (regions lagging behind in their development) and certain Community initiatives (essentially REGIS).

Over the current planning period (1994-1999), the contribution of the Structural Funds represents some EUR 4 327,5 million (at 1999 prices), divided as follows:

>TABLE>

Part of these programmes is, of course, intended for transport and energy infrastructures. Furthermore, in the case of the ERDF, Council Regulation (EEC) No 2083/93 of 20 July 1993 amending Regulation (EEC) No 4254/88 laying down provisions for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88(3) specifies in Title I, Article 1(b) that the ERDF should contribute to the development of trans-European transport, energy and telecommunications networks.

Finally, other financial instruments, in particular the European Investment Bank, also finance infrastructure projects in ultra-peripheral regions.

(1) OJ L 228, 9.9.1996.

(2) OJ L 161, 29.6.1996.

(3) OJ L 193, 31.7.1993.