WRITTEN QUESTION E-1291/00 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Project for construction of a water purifying plant in Gondomar in the context of the integrated improvement project for the Ria de Vigo financed by the Cohesion Fund.
Date: 2000-04-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Cohesion Fund, Galicia, Spain, fraud, public works, water treatment

20.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 89 E/23

on developing modalities for EU/NATO relations to permit cooperation on the appropriate military
response to a crisis, as set out in Washington and Cologne.

3.
As to the budgetary implications, it has to be stressed that any duplication will be avoided, therefore
the efforts by those Member States which contribute within NATO to the Defence Capabilities Initiative
will also benefit from the achievement of the headline goal set in Helsinki. It is for Member States to see
whether the capabilities goals can be achieved through the simple reallocation of resources or need
additional budgetary efforts. In any case the (cid:145)Capabilities Pledging Conference(cid:146) which will be held at EU
level before the end of the year will no doubt prove the seriousness of the EU Member States in the
fulfilment of their new commitments.

(2001/C 89 E/020)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1291/00

by Camilo Nogueira RomÆn (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(19 April 2000)

Subject: Project for construction of a water purifying plant in Gondomar in the context of the integrated

improvement project for the Ria de Vigo financed by the Cohesion Fund

The decision of the Commission to grant Cohesion Fund aid to the set of integrated clearance projects for
the Ria de Vigo (Galicia) (Commission Decision 95/11/61/035) provides, in one of its paragraphs, for a
specific action for integrated improvement for Gondomar and the river Miæor. This specific project was
costed at ECU 4 836 036 in total. In the case of Gondomar, the first stage consists of the construction of a
water purifying plant and a number of collectors; the construction work has terminated, but the plant is
not yet officially in operation. The project has given rise to a major controversy in the local community,
and has even been the subject of a complaint lodged with the regional ombudsman for Galicia: the plant
has been built on privately-owned land belonging to a single proprietor, and the contract of sale was
drawn up in a secret and irregular fashion. It further appears that the transaction has been highly
profitable for the owner, who has now filed a request for the land to be reclassified with a view to using
it for property development. In addition, the access road to the plant (linking the Ramallosa-Gondomar
road to the parish of Dornas, in the municipality of Gondomar) runs through this person(cid:146)s land and has
not yet been completed: access to the plant is thus not at present possible.

Can the Commission call for an inquiry into these circumstances, as well as for the assessment and
monitoring of this project, which has been suspended for some time and which appears to exhibit
operational irregularities?

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(26 July 2000)

According to information provided by the Spanish authorities, construction of the Gondomar sewage
treatment plant has been completed since February 2000 and the testing and implementation phase is
currently in hand. The site of this plant was chosen after technical studies carried out prior to its
implementation. Land was made available to the independent organisation (cid:145)Augas de Galicias(cid:146), which is
responsible for the project, by the municipality of Gondomar.

The Commission is not currently planning an inquiry into this project specifically. However, it would like
to remind the Honourable Member that the monitoring of projects financed by the Cohesion Fund is in
the hands of a monitoring committee which meets twice a year. The Commission will therefore certainly
be checking on the project in question within the framework of this committee.