WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2088/97 by Hiltrud BREYER to the Commission. Open-cast lignite mining
Date: 1997-06-19
Institutions: BREYER, European Parliament
Subjects: ECSC Treaty, Germany, competition law, economic concentration, environmental impact, lignite, merger, mining operation













EUR-Lex - 91997E2088 - EN






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91997E2088

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2088/97 by Hiltrud BREYER to the Commission. Open-cast lignite mining  


Official Journal C 060 , 25/02/1998 P. 0092 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-2088/97 by Hiltrud Breyer (V) to the Commission (19 June 1997)Subject: Open-cast lignite mining1. On 3 April 1997 in Brussels the Commission decided to halt its complaint procedure against the continuation of open-cast lignite mining, on the basis of its view that the permits issued for the open-cast lignite mining operations are in accordance with EC law.(a) What justification does the Commission have for this decision?(b) Why does the Commission take the view that the Council Directive on environmental impact assessment (85/337/EEC) was not breached?2. A merger between the German coalmining companies Saarberg AG and Ruhrkohle AG is being planned. The merger would concentrate almost 100% of the German coal industry in one undertaking. These companies are also active on a large scale in other fields and as a result a merger would also produce concentrations excluding competition elsewhere.Does the Commission consider this monopolistic merger to be compatible with EU competition law?Answer given by Mr Van Miert on behalf of the Commission (23 July 1997)1. The Commission is unaware of any decision of 3 April 1997 concerning open-cast mining. Indeed, the Commission has not taken any decision at all on open-cast mining over the last months.However, it is true that, on the basis of petitions put forward to Parliament's Committee on Petitions ((Petitions 392/95, 584/95, 293/96 and 947/96. )), the Commission is currently investigating two open-cast mines situated in Germany. The Commission has not yet taken a final decision in these cases.2. Ruhrkohle AG and Saarbergwerke AG have announced that they intend to inform the Commission in the next few weeks about the plan to merge their respective Ruhr and Saar coal mining activities. As yet the Commission has no more detailed information on the intended merger. Mergers of firms in the field of coal mining are subject to preventive merger control under Article 66 of the ECSC Treaty. The structure of supply and demand and competition conditions in the substantive and geographical markets concerned will have to be examined to determine whether a merger between Ruhrkohle AG and Saarbergwerke AG is compatible with the common market. In view of the high concentration of hard coal production in Germany the examination will have to concentrate on whether imports of hard coal from third countries (imported coal) and from intra-Community trade restrict domestic producers' scope for competitive behaviour to any extent, and from the customer's point of view represent an adequate provisioning alternative. The outcome of this examination cannot be anticipated here.If the plan were also to concern products or markets which are not covered by the ECSC Treaty (e.g. Saarbergwerke's activities in mechanical engineering or waste disposal), the merger may, as far as these activities are concerned, possibly also need to be notified under Council Regulation No 4064/89 (the 'merger control Regulation') ((OJ L 395, 30.12.1989. )).