WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1762/97 by Jan MULDER to the Commission. Imports of flowers from Latin American countries
Date: 1997-05-27
Institutions: European Parliament, MULDER
Subjects: Latin America, United States, drug traffic, economic consequence, fight against crime, floriculture, generalised preferences, import

C 21/92

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

22. 1. 98

Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission

(7 July 1997)

The Commission is now looking into the matter raised by the Honorable Member. A tax on dish aerials could be
illegal if it was found to contravene Article 59 of the EC Treaty by restricting the freedom to provide services, or
Article  2  of  Directive  89/552/EEC (1),  the  (cid:145)Television  without  frontiers(cid:146)  Directive,  which  establishes  the
principle of freedom of reception and retransmission of television broadcasts from other Member States.

(1)  OJ L 298, 17.10.1989.

(98/C 21/192)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1762/97

by Jan Mulder (ELDR) to the Commission

(27 May 1997)

Subject: Imports of flowers from Latin American countries

On  29  April  I  received  the  Commission(cid:146)s  answer  to  my  question  E-0901/97 (1)  of  24  April  1997.  The
Commission states that it does not yet have the results of a large-scale survey of the functioning of the SGP
scheme with the countries of the Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market and Panama. The special
arrangements with Colombia have been in force since 13 November 1990.

My supplementary questions are as follows:

1. Why is it that in late April 1997 the Commission had still not evaluated the scheme involving Colombia
which has been in force since 13 November 1990, particularly as the United States appear to have the requisite
information to enable them to evaluate the arrangements and to draw far-reaching conclusions?

2. When does the Commission think it will be able to evaluate these arrangements, and in particular inform
Parliament of whether the trading concessions satisfy the original objectives?

(1)  OJ C 373, 9.12.1997.

Answer given by Mr Mar(cid:14)·n on behalf of the Commission

(20 June 1997)

1.
The Commission keeps a close watch on trends in exports to the Community from the Andean and Central
American countries accorded special arrangements under the scheme of generalised tariff preferences. Studies of
the impact of those arrangements on Andean trade were carried out prior to the scheme’s extension to include
Venezuela from 1 January 1995. Via monitoring arrangements set up jointly with the countries concerned, the
Commission  also  keeps  abreast  of  their  efforts  to  combat  drug  trafficking  and  progress  made  in  terms  of
improved legislation, reductions in the area cultivated to produce drugs, and law enforcement.

On the basis of the data available to it, the Commission judged the impact of the special arrangements to be
satisfactory, and said so in its report to the Generalised Preferences Committee in December 1995, pursuant to
Article 18 of Council Regulation (EC) No 3281/94 of 19 December 1994 (1). Nonetheless, the Commission felt
that  a  more  detailed  examination  of  the  impact  of  the  special  arrangements,  including  their  long-term
socio-economic effects, was needed. It was to that comprehensive, up-to-date study that the Commission referred
in  its  answer  to  the  Honourable  Member’s  written  question  E-0901/97.  It  is  not  aware  that  the  US  has  the
information needed to evaluate the effects of the special arrangements granted by the Community.

The Commission expects to receive the preliminary conclusions of the study in question in July and to

2.
present its final report to the Generalised Preferences Committee when it reconvenes in October.

(1)  OJ L 348, 31.12.1994.