WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2180/96 by Armelle GUINEBERTIERE to the Commission. Slowness in dealing with Complaint No P/93/ 4742
Date: 1996-08-02
Institutions: European Parliament, GUINEBERTIERE
Subjects: Italy, administrative formalities, complaint to the Commission, distance selling, postal charges, tariff preference, trade restriction













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91996E2180

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2180/96 by Armelle GUINEBERTIERE to the Commission. Slowness in dealing with Complaint No P/93/ 4742  


Official Journal C 060 , 26/02/1997 P. 0131 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-2180/96 by Susan Waddington (PSE) to the Commission (2 August 1996)Subject: Slowness in dealing with Complaint No P/93/4742By letter of 28 July 1993 the WESCO company (Cerizay, France) lodged with the Commission a complaint concerning difficulties with the Italian authorities over a postal charge on a mail order sales catalogue. DG XV replied in May 1996.Does it have to take the Commission three years to respond to Community citizens?The Commission says in its letter to the company that if it should bring forward any new information providing evidence of a further offence, a new complaint would be registered and treated with all due despatch.Is this likely to mean another three years?Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission (3 October 1996)By letter dated 28 July 1993, the company Wesco drew the Commission's attention to Circular No 13 prot. DCSP/1/1/1594/ST/76 of 21 August 1978 from the Italian Postal Ministry, which stated that a party wishing to qualify for a preferential rate for mail-order sales was required to provide a certificate from the Italian Chamber of Commerce attesting specifically to the fact that it carried on that type of activity. The letter was registered as a complaint on 7 September 1993.A party wishing to obtain such a certificate had to have either a legal representative or a place of business in Italy. This condition was incompatible with Article 30 of the EC Treaty. The Commission contacted the Italian authorities on several occasions to inform them of this fact. In particular, a number of letters were sent to the Italian authorities in connection with this matter, which was on the agenda for the meeting on 3 and 4 October 1994 between the Commission representatives and the representatives of the Italian authorities and on that for the 'follow-up' meeting on 16 and 17 January 1995.Following the Commission's intervention, the circular objected to by the complainant was amended by Circular No DSP/1/12724/102/95 of 2 August 1995, which now stipulates that enterprises with their place of business in another Member State qualify for the preferential rate subject to presentation of a certificate from their Member State of origin equivalent to that required from Italian enterprises.With this circular, which was notified to the Commission by the Italian authorities on 9 January 1996, the obstacle objected to has been removed. Consequently, the Commission has decided not to take any further action on the complaint and, by letter of 23 March, it informed the complainant of the removal of the obstacle at issue and of its decision but stated that it remained at Wesco's disposal should the company encounter any further obstacles to its commercial activity.