WRITTEN QUESTION No. 4077/98 by Caroline JACKSON Better lawmaking: a shared responsibility
Date: 1999-01-14
Institutions: European Parliament, JACKSON CAROLINE
Subjects: Council of the European Union, EU publication, European Commission, European Parliament, Official Journal, drafting of EU law, interinstitutional relations (EU), proposal (EU)

C 325/52

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

12.11.1999

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(24 March 1999)

The Commission is aware of the Ombudsman’s decision in this matter.

The Ombudsman’s critical remarks solely concern the extent to which the Commission had given adequate
reasons for not accepting a legal argument put forward by the complainants (which essentially related to
whether Spain could rely on a development consent process set out in Directive 92/43/EEC (1) of 21 May 1992
on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna as against an earlier process set out in
Directive 79/409/EEC (2) of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds).

However, the Commission considers that the information it provided was sufficient to address this legal
argument, since it could be logically deduced from this information why the legal argument was not accepted.
In particular, the Commission made quite clear the date from which it considered Directive 92/43/EEC to be
applicable, and the facts made it clear that the Itoiz project would be carried out after that date. In any case, the
Ombudsman did not question the correctness of the Commission’s legal stance.

Given this and given the fact that the Itoiz project has since been constructed, the Commission does not see
any purpose in prolonging commentary on a Commission decision dating from 1994. The original
complainant in this case has been fully informed of Commission’s views on this issue.

(1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.
(2) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(1999/C 325/064)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4077/98

by Caroline Jackson (PPE) to the Commission

(14 January 1999)

Subject: Better lawmaking: a shared responsibility

On 2 December the Commission announced that it is ‘planning to withdraw around 90 proposals which are
no longer relevant for various reasons, including subsidiarity’.

Can the Commission now supply the questioner with a list of the proposals that it is planning to withdraw; can
it state when this list will become official, and, when it does, will it undertake to publish the list in the Official
Journal?

Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission

(10 February 1999)

The list to which the Honourable Member refers was sent to Parliament and the Council on 17 December
1998 (1).

The relevant decision will shortly be published in the Official Journal.

(1)

SEC(98) 2143.

(1999/C 325/065)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4080/98

by Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Abandoned villages in Aragon (Spain)

(14 January 1999)

Aragon is the Spanish Autonomous Community most heavily affected by depopulation: some 400 villages,
hamlets and farms, above all in the Huesca Pyrenees and the Teruel mountain regions, a fact which clearly
reflects the regional planning policies implemented hitherto.