WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3234/98 by David MARTIN to the Commission. A single market for opiates
Date: 1998-10-26
Institutions: European Parliament, MARTIN DAVID
Subjects: EU Member State, competence of the Member States, free movement of goods, import, import policy, international convention, narcotic, national law, psychotropic substance, public health

15.10.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 297/61

In Autumn 1998, a survey was launched in the Commission departments, as part of the 1999 budget
procedure, to ascertain the various forms of technical and administrative assistance, including BATS, which
were charged to Parts A and B of the budget. A standard budget remark and ceilings for each budgetary
heading concerned will ensure transparency whenever recourse is had to such assistance.

With regard to the inclusion of these firms’ telephone numbers in the directory in the form of abridged codes,
officials who have access only to local numbers can ring specified correspondents in Belgium, in Europe or
throughout the world without going though the switchboard. This arrangement makes communication more
efficient for users who frequently contact a small number of specific external numbers; it reduces the
switchboard’s workload and it limits the number of international lines which need be allocated. The abridged
numbers are given to delegations, ministries and other institutions and to those private firms with which the
Commission has contractual links (travel agencies, sub-contractors). Firms derive no advantage from being
included in the list of abbreviated numbers (they are only for outgoing calls from the Commission) and the
arrangement entails no legal obligation for the Commission.

(1999/C 297/080)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3234/98

by David Martin (PSE) to the Commission

(26 October 1998)

Subject: A single market for opiates

Could the Commission please outline the Community-wide approach to the free movement of opiates and say
what measures it is taking to create a single market for opiates?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(15 January 1999)

Opiates, products derived from opium, fall into the category of drugs whose manufacture, importation,
exportation and use are governed by the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention, to which all the Member
States are signatories but not the Community. Since they are harmful to health and may be a basis for
trafficking, opiates are subject to strict regulations issued by each of the Member States, which, in the absence
of Community legislation on the subject, have responsibility in this field. Under the provisions of Article 36 of
the EC Treaty, the Member States are, in particular, entitled to take measures to prohibit or restrict imports of
opiates from other Member States. For almost ten years the Commission has tried on a number of occasions,
and again very recently, to get the Member States to establish a common approach both to the supervised
movement of opiates in the Community and to the supervision of imports of opiates from non-member
countries. This has proved impossible, since most Member States wish to retain total control of the flows of
opiates across their borders. Therefore the Commission is at present unable to take any practical initiatives in
this field.

(1999/C 297/081)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3238/98

by José Valverde López (PPE) to the Commission

(26 October 1998)

Subject: Interreg initiative in Andalusia

What programmes and investments are planned or are being planned under the Interreg initiative in
Andalusia?