WRITTEN QUESTION E-2928/03 by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission. European Spatial Development Perspective and the SRUNA Project.
Date: 2003-10-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU initiative, EU programme, area management, environmental policy, exploitation of resources, leisure, natural resources, sustainable development, town and country planning

C 70 E/164

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

20.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(4 November 2003)

The Commission agrees with the assessment that (cid:1) contrary to the United States in the second half of the
1990s (cid:1) the Union has failed to create jobs and raise labour productivity growth at the same time.
In recent years, the Union has succeeded in raising the employment rate, while, in contrast to the United
States, labour productivity growth has slowed down.

In view of the Union’s lagging performance in the second half of the 1990s, the Lisbon European Council
of March 2000 set the goal for the Union to become within a decade the most competitive and dynamic
knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs
and greater social cohesion. The European Council has also agreed a structural reform agenda, which is
known as the Lisbon Strategy.

Since then, the European Council has met annually to assess progress on the ‘Lisbon Strategy’ and to
identify priorities for action. The recent ‘Growth Initiative’ by the Italian presidency and the Commission
has identified accelerating structural reforms and promoting investment in infrastructure and human
capital as key priorities for improving the growth performance of the Union economy. In this sense,
a European productivity pact is already operational.

(2004/C 70 E/174)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2928/03

by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission

(6 October 2003)

Subject: European Spatial Development Perspective and the SRUNA Project

In June 2000, the Sustainable Recreational Use of Natural Assets (SRUNA) project, which examined
methods of planning for sustainable recreation in natural amenity areas in Dublin and Mid-East regions
and which was funded by the EU TERRA programme, was completed.

How have the recommendations of the SRUNA project been incorporated into the follow-up to the
European Spatial Development Perspective?

What current (or planned) EU-funded programmes and initiatives would be of relevance in relation to the
implementation of the SRUNA recommendations?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(25 November 2003)

The programme TERRA was launched in 1997 in the context of the innovative actions financed by the
Article 10 of
It concerned 15 experimental,
transnational and interregional innovative pilot projects in the field of spatial planning throughout Europe,
one of which was the project SRUNA (Sustainable Recreational Use of Natural Assets).

the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

A total of EUR 40 million (of which EUR 20 million from the ERDF) was earmarked for the TERRA
programme. TERRA was conceived as a laboratory for testing new approaches to, and methodologies for,
spatial planning. In addition, TERRA (cid:1) together with the Interreg IIC programmes (cid:1) aimed to contribute
to the assessment of the relevance of the policy options proposed by the European Spatial Development
Perspective (ESDP).

20.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 70 E/165

The final TERRA report, published by the Commission at the beginning of 2000, concluded that the
SRUNA project had obtained very good results by developing a bottom-up partnership for sustainable
development, an inventory of recreational natural assets and best practice guidelines for integrated
planning (including a report on access for disabled to recreational natural assets. These results were
disseminated via the TERRA seminars and workshops as part of the effort to promote spatial planning in
widely diverse cultural and institutional contexts. More information can be found on the web-site. (http://
europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/innovation/innovating/terra/expplan/toc.html).

As it was pointed out in the TERRA closing event held in Brussels in spring 2000, which gathered partners
from all 15 projects, no extension of the TERRA programme as such was foreseen. Rather, the Community
initiative Interreg III, 2000-2006, is the natural framework under which the continuation of this type of
co-operation is possible. The Commission adopted the guidelines for the Community initiative Interreg III
on 28 April 2000 (1). Specific guidelines for interregional co-operation were approved on 4 May 2001 (2).

(1) OJ C 143, 23.5.2000.
(2) OJ C 141, 15.5.2001.

(2004/C 70 E/175)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2931/03

by Marco Cappato (NI), Maurizio Turco (NI),
Emma Bonino (NI), Marco Pannella (NI), Benedetto Della Vedova (NI),
Gianfranco Dell’Alba (NI) and Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(6 October 2003)

Subject: Appointment of General Ammar as Chairman of the National Organising Committee for the

World Summit on the Information Society

Between 1984 and 1987, during which time General Habib Ammar commanded the National Guard,
torture became a common practice in the Tunisian gendarmerie.

In 1986, General Habib Ammar set up the National Special Services Department (Abhath Wa Taftich),
whose main base was the Auoina barracks, in which torture was systematically and constantly practised
against hundreds of prisons, most of whom were opponents to the Bourguiba regime.

Following General Ben Ali’s coup d’état, General Habib Ammar was appointed Interior Minister in the
Tunisian Government in November 1987. During his time at the head of the Interior Ministry, the
Ministry’s premises were transformed into detention and torture centres.

With a view to preparing for the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the
second stage of whose proceedings will be held in Tunisia from 16 to 18 November 2005, the Tunisian
Government has set up a National Organising Committee for the WSIS and has appointed General Habib
Ammar chairman of the committee.

Furthermore, the persistent violations of the right to freedom of expression and opinion, both on-line and
off-line, which are a daily feature of political life in Tunisia and the fact that journalists and Internet users
are being arrested, tortured and sentenced to heavy custodial sentences.

Would the Commission not agree that every possible means of political, diplomatic and economic pressure
should be used to persuade the Tunisian Government to revoke the appointment of General Ammar as
Chairman of the National Organising Committee for the WSIS?

Would it agree that it should speak out and take steps with a view to securing the suspension of the
decision to hold the second session of the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia in 2005
until such time as the Tunisian Government ensures that the full enjoyment of the right to freedom of
expression is genuinely guaranteed by Tunisian law?