WRITTEN QUESTION E-3756/00

by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(4 December 2000)

Subject: The European Spatial Strategy and the EU's Objective 1 outlying maritime regions

At the informal Council of Ministers responsible for spatial planning held in Potsdam in May 1999, the Member States and the Commission adopted a document on the European Spatial Strategy (ESS), embodying a strategic vision of spatial planning at Community level and incorporating perspectives in this area with a view to EU enlargement.

In its resolution of 7 February 1998 on spatial planning and the European Spatial Planning Perspective, Parliament emphasised (in paragraphs 17 and 18) the need to adopt policies for the development and renewal of the Union's ports, especially those situated in the remote and outermost regions, as well as the need to encourage a global maritime policy aimed at developing communications within and outside Europe by promoting maritime transport, as an environment-friendly mode which contributes to reducing land transport congestion but is at present insufficiently developed, especially in the remote and outermost regions.

Can the Commission comment on the form in which these positions of Parliament have been taken up in the ESS?

What options are put forward in the ESS with a view to furthering economic, social and spatial cohesion in the EU's Objective 1 outlying maritime regions?

Does the Commission not consider that a global maritime policy on the EU's part could make a decisive contribution to economic, social and spatial cohesion in the EU's Objective 1 outlying maritime regions in the context of those regions' particular characteristics, in the same fashion as the EC Treaty currently recognises the particular characteristics of the Union's outermost regions?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(19 February 2001)

The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) was approved in May 1999 at the meeting of ministers responsible for regional planning in Potsdam. It provides a guidance framework for the sectoral policies of the Community and the Member States.

With regard to the role of ports, the ESDP states that setting up a European network of large sea ports, including regional sub-systems of ports, would be in the interests of all regions. With more specific reference to the outlying and outermost regions, the ESDP notes that access to the networks should be improved, particularly by connecting insular, landlocked and peripheral areas to the central areas.

A feature of the Community's territory is the very high concentration of economic activity and population in the central area. One of the main options of the ESDP is to promote the balanced and polycentric development of the Community. To achieve this, it notes that the creation and enlargement of several dynamic global economy integration zones provides an important instrument for accelerating economic growth and job creation in the EU, particularly also in the regions currently regarded as structurally weak (Objective 1 and 6 Areas of the current regional funds).

A large number of maritime regions in the south of the Community are eligible under Objective 1. Through this Objective and the Interreg Community Initiative, which gives cooperation among maritime regions and important role, the Community conducts an active policy to help those regions. In other fields, such as the policy on short-distance transport, the PACT programme and policy on sea ports, including its position on the trans-European transport networks, the Commission also takes into consideration the needs of these regions, which have a vital role to play in promoting the more balanced development of the Community.