WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1237/97 by Paul LANNOYE to the Commission. The building of a sorting centre for household waste at Havré in the region of Mons-Borinage-Centre (under Objective 1 - Hainaut, Axis 2)
Date: 1997-04-08
Institutions: European Parliament, LANNOYE
Subjects: Walloon region (Belgium), building regulations, competence of the Member States, domestic waste, environmental protection, feasibility study, industrial building, waste disposal, waste management













EUR-Lex - 91997E1237 - EN






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91997E1237

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1237/97 by Paul LANNOYE to the Commission. The building of a sorting centre for household waste at Havré in the region of Mons-Borinage-Centre (under Objective 1 - Hainaut, Axis 2)  


Official Journal C 373 , 09/12/1997 P. 0092 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-1237/97 by Paul Lannoye (V) to the Commission (8 April 1997)Subject: The building of a sorting centre for household waste at Havré in the region of Mons-Borinage-Centre (under Objective 1 - Hainaut, Axis 2)ITRADEC (a body covering several administrative areas in Belgium) has submitted an application for a subsidy under the Objective 1 programme for the Hainaut region to build a sorting centre for household waste which would, at a later stage, incorporate a biomethanation plant for the treatment of organic waste. The site chosen for the sorting centre is in a non-industrial area designated under a local development plan.In theory a sorting centre for waste with a biomethanation plant should not be built in this area. According to the Directorate-General for Land Planning in the Walloon Regional Authority, an exception to this rule could only be granted if the incidence study gave all the necessary guarantees to the local authorities and the local inhabitants that the plan would not be detrimental to the environment or the landscape.The incidence study carried out for the project only looked at the sorting centre and, in the opinion of the Walloon Environmental Council for Sustainable Development, is therefore incomplete. The study shows that, from an urban planning perspective, building the centre on the Havré site is not the most appropriate solution and that it would constitute an eyesore (this opinion is shared by the Walloon Environmental Council). The addition of a biomethanation plant would only exacerbate the problem and should have been taken into account.Does the Commission intend to make it a requirement that an incidence study be carried out into the overall project, given that the plant would be built in a non-industrial sector designated under the local development plan?Joint answer to Written Questions E-1236/97 and E-1237/97 given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (2 May 1997)In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the competent national and regional authorities are responsible for implementing the operational programmes part-financed by the Structural Funds and, consequently, the measures decided on in that context. In addition, the project in question is subject to the rules in the single programming document (SPD) for Hainault ((Decision C(94)1450 (Article 2c) of the Commission, 14.6.1994. )), which provide in particular for compliance with the rules on the environment.Available information, in particular concerning the assessment of the environmental effects of the project in question, does not show any infringement of Community law.The issues raised should therefore be dealt with by the Walloon authorities, as regards both the location of the sorting centre and the feasibility studies to be carried out.