Cohesion Fund. Annual Report. Complement

OBJECTIVE: to complement the annual report on the activities of the Cohesion Fund in 1994. CONTENT: the Commission report covers the period from 26 May 1994 to 31 December 1994 and complements the summary of activities in the 1994 calendar year. 1) SPAIN: a) Environment: the Spanish authorities presented a range of projects relating to water supply infrastructures, water quality control, the fight against erosion, restoration of beaches, management of banks, nature conservation, the fight against industrial pollution and the urban environment. Environmental projects accounted for 51% of total aid granted by the Cohesion Fund up to the end of December 1994, a net increase in comparison with the number presented under the Financial Instrument. b) Transport: on 21 December 1994, the Commission approved funding under the Cohesion Fund for 9 Spanish transport infrastructure projects, as follows: total eligible cost: ECU 857,631,387; Cohesion Fund aid: ECU 728,986,669; 1994 budget commitment: ECU 493,347,931. 2) PORTUGAL: a) Environment: the requests submitted by Portugal in 1994 allowed the intervention strategy defined in 1993 to be applied, i.e. to implement the main water supply, waste water treatment and urban refuse management networks in the most densely populated regions (Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve). The number of individual small-scale projects fell in comparison with 1993. b) Transport: following the entry into force of the Cohesion Fund, 5 projects and 3 studies were approved up to the end of 1994, accounting for aid of ECU 463,611 million and ECU 362,000 respectively. 3) GREECE: a) Environment: Community intervention in this area for both 1993 and 1994 totaled 61%, broken down as follows: water supply: 59%; treatment of waste water: 31%; refuse management: 1%; nature conservation: 7%; protection of the environmental heritage: 2%. b) Transport: 10 decisions at a total cost of ECU 327 million were adopted and aid from the Fund totaled ECU 278 million. 4) IRELAND: between 26 May and 31 December 1994, the Commission approved new decisions or amendments to previous decisions making provision for aid totaling ECU 126.9 million for Ireland, of which 73.6 million (58%) was for transport projects and 53.3 million (42%) was for environmental projects. The report notes that considerable progress was made during the second half of 1994 in funding projects to provide new links in transport networks or substantially improve a number of existing lines. The share of aid granted to the rail network (26% of approved aid) increased. 52 projects and studies on the transport network were approved during the second half of 1994, with eligible costs totaling ECU 1,921.18 million and aid from the Cohesion Fund totaling ECU 1,622.46 million. Commitments for these projects in the 1994 budget totaled ECU 767.9 million.�