WRITTEN QUESTION E-2455/01 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. The laying of the first sleeper of the Ferrol-Tui railway, and the highspeed link between Galicia, Portugal and Central Europe.
Date: 2001-09-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, Galicia, Portugal, co-financing, common transport policy, high-speed transport, rail network, trans-European network

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Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

16.5.2002

indicating that 7 % was allocated incorrectly while no correct accounts could be supplied for a further
34 %, so that the Commission concluded that 41 % of the total must be regarded as having been paid
without justification?

In the light of the Commission’s data or assumptions, what percentage of ESF subsidies was spent on
2.
maintaining existing organisations in the Netherlands, particularly that concerned with promoting
employment, ‘Arbeidsvoorziening’, with the result that ESF funds were used to compensate for national
spending cuts?

On what basis does the Commission in its assessment distinguish , or not , between incorrect

3.
expenditure and expenditure in relation to which no proper accounts can be submitted?

Does the Commission now regard the sum of € 200 million as definitive if

4.
the Netherlands
Government cannot account for the 34 % which may have been correctly spent but in relation to which
no correct accounts can be submitted?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(29 October 2001)

The article 24 calculation (1) is based on the report of the accountant of the Ministry of Social Affairs
1.
and Employment, whereas the systemic nature of the irregularities is also evident from the control reports
of the Commission. The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its reply to his Written
Question E-2451/01 (2) and to the list of control reports contained therein.

2.
The Commission does not make any assumptions on the suggested misuse of European Social Fund
(ESF) subsidies to maintain existing organisations in the Netherlands. The Commission examines all ESF
expenditure strictly in the light of the Structural Funds regulation.

Projects are rejected either because the declared expenditure is not eligible or because there is no
irregularities that are specifically

for the eligibility of the expenditure. Both are examples of

3.
proof
mentioned in the Structural Funds Regulation.

The Commission has asked the Dutch authorities to present evidence to the contrary that the

4.
article 24 claim of the Commission is not justified.

(1) Out of Council Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 of 19 December 1988, laying down provisions for implementing
Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 as regards coordination of the activities of the different Structural Funds between
themselves and with the operations of the Europen Investment Bank and the other existing financial instruments ,
OJ L 374, 31.12.1988.

(2) See page 87.

(2002/C 115 E/094)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2455/01

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

(11 September 2001)

Subject: The laying of the first sleeper of the Ferrol-Tui railway, and the highspeed link between Galicia,

Portugal and Central Europe

Last July, the Spanish Prime Minster and the President of the Government of Galicia, attended an
ostentatiously prepared and organised ceremony to lay the first sleeper of a dozen kilometres of highspeed
railway between Ferrol and the Portuguese border, which in principle forms part of the intermodal Ferrol
to Lisbon project within the Transeuropean Networks. Only three months after the Galician elections, the

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Galician and Spanish authorities are presenting the building of this tiny stretch as the beginning of the
highspeed rail link between Galicia, Porto and Lisbon, Madrid and Central Europe, taking it for granted
that European Union co-funding is to be forthcoming under the programmes for 200-2006. In the face of
these claims, the Portuguese Government is raising doubts about the construction of the highspeed rail
link between Porto and Vigo, apparently preferring to duplicate the centralist option with the Porto-Madrid
and Lisbon-Madrid links, while the Spanish Government was not provided any verifiable proof that it plans
a genuine highspeed link between Galicia and the rest of Europe, or even that the requisite Spanish and
Community budgetary allocations for 2000-2006 for the link itself actually exist. Can the Commission
therefore , in view of its responsibilities, decisions, and budgetary forecasts , provide an answer to the
doubts and questions which have been raised, so that the people of Galicia are in possession of proper
information and can take whatever democratic decisions they deem necessary on an issue of enormous
importance to their future?

(2002/C 115 E/095)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2466/01

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

(11 September 2001)

Subject: A high-speed rail link between Galicia and Central Europe via France

Within the Trans-European Networks, what are the political and budgetary provisions for a high-speed rail
link between North-West Spain, and Galicia in particular, and Central Europe via France?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2455/01 and E-2466/01
given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(7 November 2001)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its answers to Written Questions E-2189/01 (1)
and E-2030/01 (2). The only recent development has been the formal adoption by the Commission on
2 October 2001 of a proposal to amend Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport
network (3) and a proposal to amend Council Regulation (EC) No 2236/95 of 18 September 1995 laying
down general rules for the granting of Community financial aid in the field of trans-European networks (4).

These proposals have been sent to Parliament and the Council. The first is designed to focus Community
action on a number of new priorities and ‘specific’ projects, comprising those projects selected by the
European Councils of Essen on 9 and 10 December 1994 and Dublin on 13 and 14 December 1996
which have not yet been completed and eight new projects. The second proposal is designed to increase
the maximum Community contribution to certain critical trans-European network projects,
including
railway bottlenecks crossing natural barriers, to 20 % of investment.

As the Commission has already announced in its White Paper ‘European transport policy for 2010’ (5), the
eight projects referred to above include the interoperability of the Iberian high-speed rail network on the
basis of the Spanish and Portuguese national plans. As the Honourable Member has already been informed,
this project includes Galicia’s high-speed rail links.

(1) See page 36.
(2) OJ C 93 E, 18.4.2002, p. 49.
(3) OJ L 228, 9.9.1996.
(4) OJ L 228, 23.9.1995.
(5) COM(2001) 370 final.