§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much subsidy has been given to Spain in each of the last three years from the European Community, for the environment; and what is the forecast of funding to Spain for each of the next three years. [24683]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe main sources of Community funding for the environment are the structural and cohesion funds, various research programmes and the LIFE grant fund. The information the department has available is as follows. More detailed information will be available from the European Commission.
a) The Structural Funds: allocations for environmental protection and improvement projects—Objective 1—1730m ecu for 1994–99 (£1437m)Objective 2—39.5m ecu for 1994–96 (£32.8m)Objective 5(b)—Spain has been allocated 664m ecu in total at 1994 prices (£551.5m) for 1994–99. Some of this may be allocated to environmental projects, but we do not have details.258W
b) The Cohesion Fund Millions Total (ecu) Environment (ecu)1 1993 858.45 (£713.0) 252.08 (£209.37 1994 962.5 (£799.4) 385 (£319.8) 1995 1100 (£913.6) 440 (£365,4) 1996 1,237.5 (£1,027.8) 495 (£411.1) 1997 1,375 (£1,142.0) 550 (£456.8) 1998 1,402.5 (£1,164.9) 561 (£456.9) 1 There are no guidelines for the breakdown of the Fund between environment and transport projects. Estimates for 1994 onwards are based on the commission's division of 40 per cent. transport and 60 per cent. environment.
(c) LIFE (Financial Instrument for the Environment)—grants awarded to Spanish projects 1991–93 26 million ecu (£21.6 million) 1994 16 million ecu (£13.3 million) expected range 12–15 million ecu each year 1995–97 (£10–12.5 million) Note:
Conversion rate used: £1 = 1.204 ecu.