WRITTEN QUESTION No. 587/98 by Maria BERGER to the Commission. Possession of firearms by private individuals
Date: 1998-03-04
Institutions: BERGER, European Parliament
Subjects: personal weapon, public order, public safety

C 402/18

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

22.12.98

Joint answer to Written Questions
E-0579/98, E-0580/98, E-0687/98, E-0688/98 and E-0689/98
given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(12 May 1998)

Council Regulation (EEC) 684/92 of 16 March 1992 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers
by coach and bus (1) establishes in Article 2 point 1 that regular services are services which provide for the
carriage of passengers at specified intervals along specified routes, with passengers being taken up and set down
at predetermined stopping points. Regular services shall be open to all, subject, where appropriate, to compulsory
reservation. Regular services are subject to authorisation. However Article 7(4) establishes reasons to reject the
application which are very strict and authorizing authorities may refuse the application only on the basis of
reasons compatible with the regulation.

In addition, Article 2 point 1 establishes that special regular services are those regular services which provide for
the carriage of specified categories of passengers to the exclusion of other passengers. Certain of those special
regular services are not subject to authorisation if they are covered by a contract concluded between the organiser
and the carrier. The reason why special regular services are exempted from authorisation as long as covered by a
contract concluded between the organiser and the carrier is because they are organised for the specific purpose of
transporting certain categories of passenger and are not open to the public in general.

The objective of the safeguard clause established in Article 2 point 1(3) is to protect existing regular services,
including special regular services, from other types of bus services like occasional and shuttle services which
could be organised, in parallel or on a temporary basis, serving the same public as existing regular services.
However, this safeguard clause cannot be invoked against special regular services if they are covered by a
contract concluded between the organiser and the carrier. Nevertheless, in case special regular services do not
comply with the conditions established in Article 2 point 1(1) and (2) and, in particular, where they transport all
kinds of passengers and not only (cid:145)specified categories of passenger to the exclusion of other passengers(cid:146), the
service in question should be considered as a regular service and then subject to authorisation.

The Commission is not competent to take measures against the (cid:145)cowboy services(cid:146) ((cid:145)servizi pirata(cid:146)). Under Article
19 of Regulation (EEC) 684/92, Member States are responsible for implementing and carrying out checks on
compliance and for the penalties applicable in case of breaches of the Regulation. This includes all measures to be
taken against operators not complying with the obligations established in the Regulation.

(1) Modified by Council Regulation (EC) 11/98 of 11.12.1997 amending Regulation (EEC) 684/92 on common rules for the international

carriage of passengers by coach and bus, OJ L 4, 8.1.1998.

(98/C 402/022)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0587/98

by Maria Berger (PSE) to the Commission

(4 March 1998)

Subject: Possession of firearms by private individuals

Directive 91/477/EEC (1) provides for the Commission to report, five years from the date for the transposition of
the directive, on the situation resulting from its application and where appropriate to propose amendments.
The report should have been submitted by 1 January 1998.

When will the Commission be submitting this report to the European Parliament? In view of the frequent
incidents in the Member States, will the Commission propose amendments to tighten up the directive?

(1) OJ L 256, 13.9.1991, p. 51.