Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-10-Speech-2-229"
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"en.20040210.10.2-229"2
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"Mr President, Mr Alavanos asks an important question on a subject that has, moreover, always been of interest to me because, as he knows, I was minister for the environment in my own country and, as you will see from our proposals for the future cohesion policy that we will be tabling next week, I continue to attach great importance to environmental issues.
His question concerns the operation of treatment plants in Greece. According to my information, 233 treatment plants have now been constructed in Greece, although 600 would need to be built to meet the needs of all of the Greek municipalities. Most of the treatment plants that have already been built were completed thanks to Community cofinancing, either from the Cohesion Fund or from the ERDF, under integrated Mediterranean programmes, successive Community support frameworks or Community initiatives.
According to the legislation in force for the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund, the Greek authorities have to declare that these plants are operational when they submit each final report marking the end of the subsidy. However, this same legislation does not give the Commission the power to check itself, after the closure of the programmes or projects, that the cofinanced infrastructure is being properly used and maintained. This task, which is very important and which almost, in my opinion, goes without saying, is the responsibility of the Member States.
Nevertheless, there is a provision that I can mention today, Article 10 of the Council Directive of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment, that provides that Member States shall ensure, and I quote, that, ‘the … treatment plants are … operated and maintained to ensure sufficient performance under all normal local climatic conditions’. Article 15(4) of the same directive authorises the Commission to request information on the functioning of all treatment plants that have been built with help from the Structural Funds.
I can tell Mr Alavanos that this is what we intend to do. If anything is amiss then the Commission will take the necessary steps, including possibly initiating an infringement procedure, to ensure that Community legislation is properly applied. Exceptionally, and in particular if treatment plants have been abandoned, the Commission will consider recovering the funds in accordance with current legislation. That is the useful and I think precise information that I wanted to give Mr Alavanos."@en1
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