WRITTEN QUESTION E-0855/02 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Internet access in rural parts of Galicia.
Date: 2002-03-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Regional Development Fund, Galicia, Internet, Spain, communications systems, exchange of information, information society, less-favoured region, operational programme

C 229 E/150

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

(2002/C 229 E/172)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0854/02

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

(27 March 2002)

Subject: Chile’s veto on access to its ports for the Community fleet fishing in international waters

What measures is the Commission taking in view of the Chilean Government’s refusal to allow landings of
catches by the Community fleet fishing in international waters in the Pacific % including Galician vessels
fishing for swordfish % despite the agreement reached between Chile and the European Union a year ago?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(26 April 2002)

A joint fishing and research programme providing for access to three Chilean ports for four Community
vessels features in the arrangement of January 2001.

Before the programme could be launched certain practical details of a technical nature had to be settled
and for this purpose the Commission and the Chilean Administration held several meetings in which,
given the distribution of responsibilities, the Spanish Administration was also directly involved. We can
now consider that these details have been settled and the programme can finally begin.

The Commission awaits, for onward transmission to Chile and launching of the programme, the list of
Spanish vessels that will be taking part and intend to land in the Chilean ports. It will closely monitor the
progress of this joint fishing/research programme under the arrangements of 25 January 2001, and in
particular how landing operations proceed.

(2002/C 229 E/173)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0855/02

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

Subject: Internet access in rural parts of Galicia

(27 March 2002)

There are 80 000 homes and businesses in Galicia which have no telephone line and which were provided,
up to 1992, with telephones linked to the ‘Rural Cellular Access Telephone Network’ in Galicia, a system
which cannot currently be linked to the Internet.

According to some sources, neither the Galician Government nor the Spanish Government wish to bear
the cost of the investment necessary to convert this system and replace it with a system allowing Internet
access, and the Spanish Government has stated that it is waiting for the Commission to declare the
Internet to be a universal service, which would make it possible to use ERDF funds.

What stage has been reached on this matter? When will these 80 000 households and businesses in Galicia
be able to gain access to the Internet?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(26 April 2002)

The Commission approved the Information Society Operational Programme of the Community support
framework for the Spanish Objective 1 regions for the 2000-2006 programming period on 13 December
2001. Under it the Union will contribute € 446 568 000 from the European Regional Development Fund
to implement nine major information society development priorities in the least favoured parts of Spain.

26.9.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 229 E/151

With Spain providing the other half of the financing, total public investment of almost EUR 1 billion will
be available for that period. This OP is multi-regional in character and there is no prior regional allocation
of the finance.

The programme includes a major project for telecommunications infrastructure that will provide Internet
access for 250 000 people in rural areas who still have only analogue technology. This major project
concerns the TRAC rural cellular access telephone network.

Article 26 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural
Funds (1) requires a Member State which envisages the Funds contributing to a major project to inform the
Commission in advance and provide all the information specified in that Article. The Commission has not
yet received that information and so cannot comment on the project’s impact in Galicia.

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999.

(2002/C 229 E/174)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0857/02

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

(3 April 2002)

Subject: Priority use of the Structural Funds in training and research and development: the case of Galicia

In the light of Ireland’s experience, the idea is gaining ground in the European Union that the Structural
Funds should primarily be used for training for workers and for research and development, rather than for
infrastructure. This idea responds to an urgent need, even though it is also true that in many outlying areas
it was necessary to construct communications links with the centre of the Union and modernise other
infrastructure as a pre-condition for development. However,
it is also inseparable from a specific and
effective regional development policy, which is incompatible with indiscriminate promotion of labour
mobility between various regions, bringing with it the certain risk of creating a paradoxical situation where
the less developed regions, such as Galicia, help to educate generations of technicians who are then unable
to find jobs and are obliged to emigrate to the centre of Europe or to more developed parts of Spain.

What strategic measures will the Council take to make training and R & D compatible with regional
development and ensure that there are businesses in the countries concerned which are capable of
absorbing the new technical skills created, in the absence of which workers are forced into this new type
of emigration, euphemistically known as labour mobility?

Reply

(27 June 2002)

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that during the programming period 2000-
1.
2006, Objective 1 programmes are focussed on three categories of projects likely to generate a process of
sustainable, endogenous growth,

% infrastructures (28 % of funds), approximately half of which are for transport infrastructure;

% human resources (20 % of funds) with priority given to employment policies and education and

training systems;

% intervention in support of the manufacturing sector (42 % of funds).