WRITTEN QUESTION P-2579/99

by Fernando Fernández Martín (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(16 December 1999)

Subject: Wording of Article 158 of the Treaty, relating to islands

The Treaty of Amsterdam amended Article 158 of the Treaty, which relates to economic and social cohesion, so that it now contains a reference to islands. The way in which the article is worded varies, and is sometimes contradictory, depending on which language version is referred to. In some language versions, Article 158 only covers the least favoured regions or islands while in other language versions it applies to disadvantaged regions or to islands. These two phrases clearly have very different meanings: the first version states that the islands are merely a subcategory of the regions designated as disadvantaged on the basis of socio-economic criteria while the second version clearly identifies the fact of being an island as a separate criterion, and calls for special treatment.

The fact that inconsistencies have been allowed to appear in a text as important as the Treaty is quite astounding. What is even more amazing is the way in which the wording of the French version developed between June 1997 (following the IGC) and November of the same year (when it was published in OJ C 340). In June 1997, the European Council's Web site published a summary of the agreement reached in Amsterdam. The French text was as follows:

(g) Island Regions

Article 130a(2) of the EC Treaty shall be amended as follows:

In particular, the Community shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions or of the islands, including rural areas.

A few months later, the wording had been changed and, in the text published in the Official Journal, became:

In particular, the Community shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions or islands, including rural areas.

It should be pointed out that the alterations seem, as far as we know, to have been made only to the French version, since in the other published language versions of the Treaty (such as the Italian version) Article 158 refers to the least favoured regions or the islands. It would therefore appear that the discrepancies cannot be attributed to the harmonisation of the text by lawyers and translators following the agreement reached in Amsterdam, which would have been subject to the unanimous consent of the Member States.

Commissioner Barnier, in both his current capacity as the Commissioner responsible for regional policy and as the former French Minister for European Affairs, responsible for the IGC negotiations until June 1997, would appear to be in a better position than anyone to explain to Parliament why the wording of Article 158 changed.

Could he explain to Parliament why the wording of the French version of Article 158 of the Treaty changed between June 1997 and November 1997? Which of the two versions, of the least favoured regions or islands or of the least favoured regions or of the islands corresponds, in letter and spirit, to the text which he negotiated, and to which France agreed, at the Intergovernmental Conference?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(18 January 2000)

At the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June 1997, the Intergovernmental Conference of Heads of State or Government reached an agreement on a draft Treaty on the basis of the texts set out in document CONF 4001/97. This document was disseminated to a restricted circle. As stated in the

conclusions of the Amsterdam European Council, the texts still had to be finalised, an indispensable stage involving legal correction and harmonisation, before the Treaty could be signed. The Amsterdam Treaty was signed on 2 October 1997.(1) Any differences between document CONF 4001/97 and the Amsterdam Treaty are therefore attributable to the legal correction and the final harmonisation of the texts, particularly as regards their concordance in all the languages in which the Treaty was drawn up.

(1) OJ C 340, 10.11.1997.