WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3503/98 by Karin RIIS-JØRGENSEN to the Commission. Taxi services in Denmark
Date: 1998-11-12
Institutions: European Parliament, RIIS-JOERGENSEN
Subjects: Denmark, harmonisation of prices, restriction on competition, taxi, transport company, transport licence

21.5.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 142/141

(1999/C 142/185)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3503/98

by Karin Riis-Jørgensen (ELDR) to the Commission

(12 November 1998)

Subject: Taxi services in Denmark

Under Danish legislation on taxi services, taxi companies can only operate with a special permit issued by
a local authority. Independent taxi operators must in addition be connected to a reservation office, which
handles bookings and arranges for a taxi to be sent to the customer. The taxi company does not thus have
direct contact with customers.

The requirement to be connected to a reservation office applies only in communes where the number of
taxi licences is 10 or more. Taxi operators cannot decide to set up a reservation office themselves because
that requires the approval of the Minister of Transport In many Danish provincial towns there is often only
one approved reservation office, and the local authorities determine the maximum prices. Individual
reservation offices have coordinated practices so that there is no price difference whichever reservation
office or taxi operator is chosen.

In practice the legislative requirement to be connected to a reservation office means that the Danish taxi
market is completely closed to competition between independent taxi operators.

Does the Commission consider it to be in keeping with the internal market’s rules on free and equal
competition for independent taxi operators to have to be connected to an approved reservation office
under Danish legislation?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(7 January 1999)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.

(1999/C 142/186)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3517/98

by Amedeo Amadeo (NI) to the Commission

(25 November 1998)

Subject: Monitoring of State aid

With reference to the proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) laying down detailed rules for the
application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty (COM(98) 0073 final − 98(0060 CNS) (1), whilst supporting
the Commission’s effort to make the recovery of unlawful aid more efficient, in particular by means of
suspension injunctions and provisional recovery of aid (Article 11) and the provision laid down in Article
14 (3) that ‘remedies under national law shall not have suspensive effect’, I would point out that the
regulation does not say what will happen if the national legal procedures do not allow immediate and
effective execution of the Commission’s decision.

To comply with the fundamental principle of equality of conditions, the Member States must undertake to
ensure that unlawful aid can be recovered immediately.

Can the Commission therefore ensure that time-wasting procedures are not established or implemented,
given that aid granted unlawfully must be recovered as soon as it becomes incompatible with the
Community rules and therefore intrinsically illegal?

(1) OJ C 116, 16.4.1998, p. 13.