WRITTEN QUESTION E-3445/01 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. The communal woodlands of Galicia and their reclamation following the destruction caused by stone quarrying.
Date: 2001-12-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, European Commission, Galicia, common land, earths and stones, environmental policy, exchange of information, protected area, stone

4.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 160 E/113

Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the
European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and amending and repealing certain Regulations (1)
lays down all the criteria under which Community funding can be granted.

That said, if these lands are deemed eligible under the Regulation, then the Structural Funds, including the
EAGGF Guidance Section, could finance measures.

The Commission invites the Honourable Member to contact the regional and/or national authorities for
further information on this matter.

(1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.

(2002/C 160 E/148)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3442/01

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

(21 December 2001)

Subject: The ‘communal woodlands’ of Galicia and the Galician Government’s environmental initiatives

Has the Galician government submitted specific environmental development plans for the ‘communal
woodlands’ of Galicia, to be granted European Union support for the period 2000-2006? Can these plans
be made public? Will the woodlands be included in the Natura 2000 network? If so, what actual projects
are there?

(2002/C 160 E/149)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3445/01

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

(21 December 2001)

Subject: The ‘communal woodlands’ of Galicia and their reclamation following the destruction caused by

stone quarrying

Has the Galician government submitted projects for the reclamation of the ‘communal woodlands’ of
Galicia following the destruction caused by stone quarrying (outstanding parts of the buildings of the
Council and the European Parliament in Brussels are made of white or pink Porrinho granite from Galicia),
to be granted European Union support for the period 2000-2006? Can these plans be made public?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-3442/01 and E-3445/01
given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(12 February 2002)

In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 of 21 June 1999 laying down general
provisions on the Structural Funds (1), the selection of individual projects to be co-financed within each
programme under the Structural Funds is the exclusive preserve of Member States. The Commission
therefore contacted the Spanish authorities to obtain the information requested by the Honourable
Member.

In relation to the Natura 2000 network, it is the Member States who are competent for proposing sites to
be included in the network. On the basis of the criteria set out in Annex II to Council Directive
92/43/EEC (2) (hereafter ‘Habitats Directive’) and relevant scientific information, each Member State must
propose a list of sites indicating which natural habitat types in Annex I to the Habitats Directive and which
species in Annex II to the Habitats Directive are present in the site.

C 160 E/114

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

4.7.2002

Spain has so far classified 68 sites as proposed Sites of Community Importance (pSCI) within the region of
Galicia. This classification is the result of the Xunta of Galicia proposal. This proposal identified 60 sites of
Community interest for the Atlantic bio-geographical region (with an area of 301 661,50 hectares) and
eight sites of Community interest
for the Mediterranean bio-
geographical region.

(with an area of 173 789 hectares)

The Commission does not have any information on whether all these sites are classified as ‘montes
comunales’ according to the Spanish legislation.

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999.
(2) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora,

OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2002/C 160 E/150)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3449/01

by Daniela Raschhofer (NI) to the Commission

(6 December 2001)

Subject: Promotion of nuclear safety in the central and east European countries and the new independent

states

The European Union promotes the enhancement and strengthening of nuclear safety in the central and
east European countries (CEEC) and the new independent states (NIS) through the Tacis and PHARE
programmes. In its annual report for 2000, the Court of Auditors noted the following: ‘The objective of
these measures is still to help to bring nuclear plants in the CEECs and the NISs up to ’European safety
standards‘. At the end of 2000, these European standards had still not been defined, nor had the
Commission yet established, as the Council and the Parliament had requested, its own indicators for the
purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the programmes …’

In its answer to the Court of Auditors’ annual report, the Commission countered:
‘In this context, the
Commission considers that if the accession negotiations can be conducted without reference to a formal
set of EU standards, then a fortiori these should not be necessary in order to assess the effectiveness of the
Commission ’s PHARE and Tacis programmes, as the Court continues to insist.’

It is not only the Court of Auditors but also Parliament and the Council which advocate such a definition
of internal criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the programmes.

The Commission:

D Will it therefore say which specific criteria are currently used to evaluate the effectiveness of the

PHARE and Tacis programmes?

D In what practical form and when does the Commission intend to respond to the Court of Auditors’
criticism that at the end of 2000 these European safety standards had still not been defined, by
making changes in the management of
the PHARE and Tacis programmes to improve their
effectiveness?

D If the Commission does not intend to improve the effectiveness of the programme, how does it justify

that in the light of the Court of Auditors’ demands for changes?

Reply given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(1 February 2002)

There are presently no common European safety standards, and such standards could only be defined
through the joint will of all Member States. However, the Council has requested the Commission to ensure
that high standards of safety are applied in Central and Eastern Europe (Cologne,
June 1999). The
Commission has been carrying out this mandate in two phases. Initially, we concentrated our efforts on
those reactors which could not reasonably be brought up to a safety standard equivalent to those of
Western reactors, and we obtained undertakings from the countries concerned that these plants will be
closed ahead of schedule.