WRITTEN QUESTION E-0374/00 by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Higher education in the United Kingdom.
Date: 2000-02-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Scotland, United Kingdom, competence of the Member States, decentralisation, educational system, equal treatment, foreign student, higher education, national law, school fees, student, student mobility

21.11.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 330 E/143

(2000/C 330 E/160)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0372/00

by Lord Inglewood (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 February 2000)

Subject: Implementation in the UK of Article 33 of the EC Treaty

Is the Commission satisfied that the United Kingdom is honouring its obligations under Article 33(1)(b) of
the EC Treaty (consolidated version)?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(25 February 2000)

Article 33 (ex Article 39) of the EC Treaty sets out the objectives of the common agricultural policy. As
the Court of justice has stated, it is the responsibility of the Community institutions, in adopting the
common organisation of agricultural markets under the EC Treaty, to secure the permanent harmonisation
between the various objectives of the common agricultural policy set out in Article 33, which may prove
to be contradictory, and, where necessary, allow any one of them temporary priority in order to satisfy the
demands of the economic factors or conditions in view of which their decisions are made. The Court has
repeatedly referred to the broad discretion which the Community institutions have in this respect.

As a result,
in itself, an
in principle no single one of the objectives listed in Article 33 constitutes,
appropriate yardstick by which the acts of any individual Member State are to be judged, and it therefore
does not fall to the Commission to make any such judgment. Of course, the Member States, in applying
the common agricultural policy within their competence, are subject
to the general principles of
Community law, and specific rules laid down in Community legislation, and it is the Commission(cid:146)s task
to ensure compliance with these requirements in specific cases.

(2000/C 330 E/161)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0374/00

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Higher education in the United Kingdom

(14 February 2000)

Does not the Commission feel that its educational programmes such as Erasmus and Socrates (which offer
all EU students the chance to study in other Member States), are being undermined by the inequitable
situation in the UK whereby a non-British student wishing to study in Scotland will have the payment of
fees deferred, whilst one wishing to study in England will have to pay upon enrolment?

Does not the Commission agree that this situation gives Scottish universities an unfair advantage over their
English, Welsh and Northern Irish competitors when trying to enrol students, and does it not agree that
this therefore constitutes a breach of EU competition law?

(2000/C 330 E/162)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0375/00

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Higher education tuition fees

(14 February 2000)

Devolution within the UK now presents a situation whereby students from other Member States in the EU
will be exempt from paying tuition fees in Scotland but not in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.