WRITTEN QUESTION E-1563/01 by Patricia McKenna (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Construction of a sports centre at the Cecebre reservoir, municipality of Avegondo, Spain.
Date: 2001-05-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: application of EU law, environmental impact, environmental law, environmental protection, impact study, sports facilities

C 350 E/190

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

11.12.2001

accession treaties signed by 1 January 2004. If the total number of representatives is less than 732, which
could be the case if all the applicant countries have not completed negotiations and signed an accession
treaty by 1 January 2004, the Council will increase the number of representatives to be elected in each
Member State in 2004 to be as close as possible to 732. The number of representatives to be elected in
2004 will be corrected on a prorata basis; without the number of representatives to be elected in a Member
State being higher than that currently provided for.

(1) OJ C 80, 10.3.2001.

(2001/C 350 E/205)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1561/01

by Robert Sturdy (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 May 2001)

Subject: Incineration vs. rendering in the UK

In the UK, full entitlement to EU reimbursement under the Over Thirty Month Scheme is only payable
when a carcass is incinerated (although an 80 % advance may be given upon rendering). The UK is
therefore losing interest on claimable money because of the policy of the Intervention Board to render
rather than use direct incineration. Is this a result of a change in the European Commission(cid:146)s or the UK
Government(cid:146)s policy?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(20 July 2001)

Under Commission Regulation (EC) No 716/96 of 19 April 1996 adopting exceptional support measures
for the beef market in the United Kingdom (1), the Community shall co-finance the expenditures incurred
by the United Kingdom for the purchase of Over Thirty Month (OTM) animals for destruction. The co-
financing which is limited to a fixed amount per animal is due after the animal has been fully incinerated
but the Regulation provides for an advance equal to 80 % of the Community contribution upon rendering.

Due to lack of capacity for direct incineration of OTM-animals, the bulk of the animals under the scheme
has been rendered into tallow and meat-and-bone meal which are products relatively easy to store until
their incineration can be made. It is the Commission(cid:146)s impression that the problem of incineration capacity
still to-day is the basis upon which the United Kingdom is deciding whether to render the animals or to
incinerate them directly.

(1) OJ L 99, 20.4.1996.

(2001/C 350 E/206)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1563/01

by Patricia McKenna (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(28 May 2001)

Subject: Construction of a sports centre at the Cecebre reservoir, municipality of Avegondo, Spain

The Deportivo de La Coruæa football club wishes to build a sports centre extending over more than
100 000 m2 beside the Cecebre reservoir, an area belonging to the Natura 2000 network. In addition to the
immense environmental importance of the site (it is a bird habitat/resting area; the species to be found
there include migrant birds, ducks and mud dwellers, herons, lesser egrets, the kingfisher, otters, newts, the
osprey, falcons, the kestrel, the goshawk, the Spanish frog, the smooth snake, the stag beetle, the fox, and
the shrew; and the site is a bird nesting area, an international bird migration observation and monitoring
area, an area of special botanical interest, an Atlantic woodland area, and a natural landscape area (1)), its
state of conservation also determines the cleanliness of the water supply for human uses for the city of La
Coruæa and its outskirts (400 000 people). In the area there are several other possible sites for the

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projected facilities, all of which would have less impact. Despite the opposition of La Coruæa City Council
and Galician and Spanish national environmental and nature conservation NGOs, the on-site preparations
have begun, producing nothing short of an environmental disaster in an area of approximately six hectares
within a zone in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir water (up to the water(cid:146)s edge) by destroying
vegetation, making the ground uneven, and altering the direction of the springs and watercourses that flow
into the wetland.

No environmental impact assessment has been conducted on the project, and the work carried out to date
has gone ahead without planning permission even though the site is under threat from various forms of
environmental aggression, namely:

(a) physical aggression (permanent structures and possible urban development of the area);

(b) aggression inflicted on the aquatic environment in both senses of the word, i.e. the wetland and the
city water supply storage area, stemming from the use of weedkillers and other chemicals on the 10
football pitches and from the sewage that will be generated by the thousands of likely visitors; and

(c)

the massive influx of people who will not be coming to the area with the intention of observing the
natural environment.

Does the Commission think it right that, to accommodate a football club(cid:146)s sports centre, part of an area
belonging to the Natura 2000 network should be destroyed and the area as a whole placed in severe
jeopardy?

Could it investigate whether the legislation on environmental impact assessment has been observed?

(1) Source: Autonomous Government of Galicia, Ministry of the Environment

(http://www.xunta.es/conselle/cma/

CMA05e/CMA05eb/p05eb06.htm).

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

(16 July 2001)

The Commission was not aware of the project the Honourable Member is referring to.

The Commission cannot comment at this stage on the possible destruction of the site designated by the
authorities for inclusion in the Natura 2000 network. According to the information at the Commission(cid:146)s
disposal, the designated site only contains the reservoir referred to in the question.

The Commission will therefore, in the next 10 days, send the Spanish authorities a request for information
on the reported situation so that it can check that Community legislation is being properly applied in this
particular case.

(2001/C 350 E/207)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1565/01

by Ewa Hedkvist Petersen (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Inaccurate statistics on alcohol-related accidents

(29 May 2001)

The fact that drinking and driving causes a large number of serious accidents every year is nothing new.
The question is whether we know the extent to which alcohol
is actually involved in accidents. A
Commission report on alcohol, drugs and road safety shows that in Italy, for example, only 1 % of
accidents are alcohol-related, whereas in France the figure is 40 %. These differences are hardly plausible
and depend on which system the individual countries use to keep statistics. In Germany, for example,
whose own statistics record 20 % of all accidents as alcohol-related, no tests are carried out in accidents
involving a single vehicle. That type of accident normally accounts for the highest number of alcohol-
related fatalities, which would imply that the hidden statistics are very high in Germany. The problem with
inaccurate statistics is that decision-makers do not have a realistic basis for their decisions. There is then
a risk that the necessary measures to combat drink-driving are not taken.