91997E4150

WRITTEN QUESTION P-4150/97 by José Barros Moura (PSE) to the Commission (7 January 1998)

Subject: Community funding of hydraulic projects in Spain

In view of the conditions laid down for approval of the funding of the Alqueva project, but taking into account the fact that the Commission has already financed a number of hydraulic projects, of various types and dimensions, in Spain, especially in rivers which flow into neighbouring countries, can the Commission state:

1. the nature, location and dimensions of the projects concerned, and, in particular, their water storage capacity;

2. whether, and under what conditions, deviation or 'transfusion' of watercourses was involved;

3. what were the environmental, agricultural or other consequences;

4. what were the conditions laid down by the Commission for approval of the projects;

5. what was the level of funding?

Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (3 February 1998)

To provide the information that the Honourable Member seeks on a large number of projects and installations would require a very extensive study that the Commission does not have the resources either to carry out itself or finance.

The Honourable Member will however find an answer to most of his questions in two documents that the Commission is sending direct to him and to Parliament's Secretariat. These constitute the Montgomery Watson report ('Water availablity under extreme conditions in the Iberian Peninsula with special reference to the Guadiana international -Spain and Portugal - river basin') published in the second half of 1996. This illustrates the problems towards resolution of which part-financing from the Community has been directed from the Structural Funds and through Cohesion Fund projects since 1993 on a national and annual basis, since the basin approach is still too recent for systematic project presentation in this way.

If after consulting these documents the Honourable Member wishes to obtain information on a specific project the Commission will undertake the research needed to obtain it.

The Commission would draw the Honourable Member's attention to the fact that many installations in Spain falling within the scope of the draft national water plan have been realised without any Community money. Nor is the Commission able, though it can of course identify projects within the Cohesion Fund ambit, to identify systematically within the programmes of the Autonomous Communities projects part-financed by the Structural Funds. It is therefore directly from the Autonomous Communities themselves as managers of these programmes that the Honourable Member will be able to find an exhaustive reply to his question.