WRITTEN QUESTION E-0818/00

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Commission

(21 March 2000)

Subject: Baling plant at Vilaboa (Galicia)

Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999(1) of 21 June 1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds institutes a spirit of association between the various levels of public administration (European, national, regional and local government) in addition to social and economic agents. However, some projects subsidised by the European Community are being carried out against the wishes of the local representatives in whose municipalities they are under way, and in spite of opposition from residents. As a result, people are rejecting the Community institutions and the idea of European integration.

Such is the case in Vilaboa (Galicia), where there are plans to build a baling plant for the incineration of waste, as part of the Galicia programme for solid urban waste, which is co-financed by the European Community. These plans have been rejected by the local municipal council and residents.

Is the Commission aware of the opposition of local representatives and public opinion? How does it view the fact that it is co-funding a project that has been rejected by the local council and residents?

Bearing in mind that in the Community range of treatments for solid urban waste the Commission places incineration below the sorting of waste, does the Commission think that the Sogama programme is in line with Community priorities?

The residents wrote to the Commission at the time complaining at the absence of an environmental impact assessment, and the study was subsequently carried out. In its reply to the residents' complaint (of 15 December 1998), the Commission informed them that it was currently looking into ways of adapting the urban solid waste management plan in the light of requirements arising from the directives on waste. What results has the Commission obtained from this investigation? What conclusions has it reached on adapting the plan?

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(18 May 2000)

Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste(1) (Article 7) requires that Member States establish waste management plans, which must relate in particular to the type, quantity and origin of the waste, general technical requirements, any special arrangements for particular waste and suitable disposal site or installations. As regards Galicia, the Commission has received the Galician management plan for solid urban waste (1999). The plan provides for the construction of a transfer station (estación de transferencia) at Vilaboa.

Community waste legislation neither obliges Member States to build waste treatment or disposal installations at a specific place nor does it oblige them to have recourse to a specific way of waste treatment. It is thus the Member State's choice whether material recycling of waste or waste incineration with or without energy recovery is preferred in a given situation.

The above-mentioned plan does not indicate how it was generated and whether the public concerned was properly and adequately consulted. Apart from Council Directive 85/337/CEE of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(2), Community waste law is silent on this question. Eventual irregularities relating to the production of the plan would have to be solved at the appropriate local, regional or national level.

Concerning Council Directive 85/337/CEE, it must be noted that, in the framework of a complaint concerning this issue, the Commission has confirmed that an environmental impact assessment was carried out in this case.

In relation to the financing of this plan, it must be noted that within the Cohesion fund project No 97.11.61.047, Plan de Gestión de los Residuos Sólidos Urbanos de Galicia, it is planned to build a number of transfer stations to transport the municipal waste from all Galicia to a central recycling and recovery plant in the Complexo Medioambiental de Cerceda.

In principle it was envisaged to build the transfer station in Vilaboa in order to collect the waste from the whole area of the city of Vigo and surroundings. Due to the social opposition to the construction of such a facility, and after a consideration of the plan with a view to locating the transfer stations closer to the production centres (the municipalities), it was decided to continue operating the existing transfer station in Vigo and to review the size of the transfer station in Vilaboa in order to adapt it to the needs of this municipality.

(1) OJ L 194, 25.7.1975.

(2) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.