WRITTEN QUESTION E-2177/99 by Monica Frassoni (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Property speculation at Is Arenas.
Date: 1999-11-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, Sardinia, Structural Funds, building speculation, environmental impact, environmental protection, impact study, protected area, tourist infrastructure, transport infrastructure

C 225 E/66

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

8.8.2000

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(21 December 1999)

In connection with the activities of the economic committee of the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC)
the Council(cid:146)s member states notify a certain amount of statistical data, including data on carryover stocks.

The Community is a member of the IOOC and submits data relating to the Community.

The Honourable Member will be aware that from 1993/94 the Community had reservations regarding the
IOOC(cid:146)s statistics. These reservations were motivated in part by the lack of reliability of the data on the
Community(cid:146)s supply balance

At the 81st meeting of the IOOC the Community, after much work on the feasibility of the data, presented
statistics which in its view most closely reflected the actual situation. This made it possible for it to lift its
reservations regarding the IOOC data.

The review covered several marketing years and the supply balance statistics for the various producer
Member States were adjusted where appropriate. Adjustments were also made to the Member States(cid:146) data
on consumption, stocks and production, which must be taken to mean marketed production. The quantity
aided can be different because it also includes a quantity calculated for payment to small producers.

After carrying out this necessary exercise in the case of data relating to the past the Commission took steps
to make all the data more reliable in future. The most important of these measures are: the design of an
objective method for calculating the olive yields of trees, which will help to improve knowledge of
production upstream; stepping up checks at mills, particularly by introducing automatic olive weighing;
and checking the destination of the olive oil produced.

Lastly, working together with the producer Member States, the Commission is stepping up checks at all
stages of the production chain and is making sure that the rules, concerning both the quantity of olive oil
produced and its quality, are complied with.

(2000/C 225 E/066)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2177/99

by Monica Frassoni (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(29 November 1999)

Subject: Property speculation at Is Arenas

The protected area in the locality of Is Arenas (Oristano, Sardinia) is entered on the register of sites of
Community importance coming within the Natura 2000 network (Bioitaly) under site code ITB 002228
pursuant to the directive on natural habitats, Directive 92/43 (1), and was funded by LIFE-Natura in 1995.
That area, comprising wooded coastal sand dunes of great importance, is also subject to the following
national or regional restrictions: a landscape planning restriction pursuant to Article 7 of Law 1497/1939,
Ministerial Decree 27.8.1980 and Article 1 of Law 431/1985; a restriction on change of use and a
requirement to comply with the crop-planting and conservation plan laid down in Royal Decree Law
3267/1923 (reform and amendment of the legislation on woodlands); and a hydrogeological restriction
pursuant to Article 17 of Law 215 13.2.1993. It is also an area coming within the proposal for the
demarcation of the boundaries of the Sinis-Montiferru regional nature park, table A, annexed to Regional
in 1997 the region of Sardinia signed a Programme
Law 31/89. Despite these protective restrictions,
Agreement with the Is Arenas company for the construction of a tourist complex involving half a million
cubic metres of concrete, 222 900 m3 of which is now being built, and has issued various planning
permissions leading in the first instance to the felling of approximately 10 000 trees. The whole project,
which is to consist of a residential tourist village for more than 6 000 people including service roads, golf
impact assessment
courses and other facilities, does not appear to have undergone an environmental
pursuant to Directives 85/337/EEC (2) and 97/11/EC (3). The Court of Justice recently ruled that in the case
of projects listed in Annex II to the above-mentioned directives, and the projects planned in Is Arenas
come within that annex, a Member State does not have the power to exclude or exempt a project from the
environmental impact assessment procedure where it has significant effects on the environment, by virtue
inter alia of its nature, size or location (4).

8.8.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 225 E/67

Does the Commission believe that these decisions are compatible with the protection which is intended to
be conferred on the area by including it in the Natura 2000 network? Does not this project nullify the
effects of the Community funds provided through LIFE-Natura for the purpose of promoting sustainable
development in the area? Have the requirements stemming from the directives on environmental impact
assessment been complied with, especially in the light of the above-mentioned judgment of the Court of
Justice? Are projects scheduled in that Programme Agreement co-funded by the Structural Funds? If so, to
what extent and for what measures specifically?

(1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992, p. 7.
(2) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985, p. 40.
(3) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997, p. 5.
(4)

Judgment of 16.9.1999 in Case C-435/97.

Answer given by Mrs Wallstr(cid:246)m on behalf of the Commission

(20 January 2000)

The case, to which the Honourable Member refers, has already been drawn to the attention of the
Commission. It concerns a project for the construction of a holiday village which is argued to be within
the scope of Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain
public and private projects on the environment and to have a significant effect on certain proposed sites of
Community interest (pSCI, under Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of
natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora), and special protection areas (SPA, under Council Directive
79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (1)).

The Commission is waiting for the written and detailed information requested from the Italian authorities.
This information is necessary in order to assess the case. The Commission will take the appropriate steps
in order to ensure the observance of Community law.

The project is not the subject of a co-financing arrangement under the structural funds.

(1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(2000/C 225 E/067)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2182/99

by Jorge Moreira Da Silva (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 November 1999)

Subject: CO2 emissions in Portugal

The 1997 Kyoto Conference on climate change saw Portugal, on the basis of its economic backwardness,
negotiate the right to increase its CO2 emission levels to the year 2012 by 40 %, against the 1990 levels.

While the majority of EU countries agreed to lower their greenhouse gas levels, Portugal became the only
country in the EU with the right actually to increase its emission of these gases.

However, last week, an exhaustive study on the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions was published
by the Environmental Systems Analysis Working Party of the New University of Lisbon.

The study concluded that as of now, Portugal has already increased its levels of emissions by 34 % over
1990 values, and forecast that by the year 2010, Portugal will be emitting 62 % more CO2 than in 1990,
far more than the extremely generous allowance of 40 % to 2012 actually agreed.

Given the seriousness of the situation, will the Commission please tell me, as a matter of urgency:

1. The most recent figures it has for greenhouse gas emission levels in Portugal;

2. What specific measures the Portuguese Government enacted with a view to controlling and lowering

greenhouse gas emissions;