WRITTEN QUESTION P-1372/00 by Marianne Thyssen (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Proposal for a directive on food supplements.
Date: 2000-04-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European social policy, food supplement, free movement of goods

28.12.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 374 E/217

The Commission is convinced that solutions can still be found which will be satisfactory to everyone. In
the coming discussions, it will emphasise the importance for the French authorities of consulting the
interested parties, including the complainants.

The discussions are specifically aimed at finding proportionate responses which are consistent with
Community law and the public health objectives of the regulations in question. The Commission is
aware of the consequences of these regulations, particularly for medium-sized producers such as wine
producers. The effects of the legislation will be at the heart of the discussions.

A code of conduct is likely to offer quick and satisfactory solutions to the problems, providing that certain
conditions are met in terms of consulting the interested parties and in terms of content, transparency and
dissemination.
In order to maximise legal certainty, the Commission considers in particular that all
interested parties (advertisers, broadcasters) should be able to obtain quick, clear and precise information
from the French authorities regarding the status of any given sports event in relation to the distinctions
made by the code.

(2000/C 374 E/257)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1339/00

by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission

(4 May 2000)

Subject: Employee consultation legislation

Does the Commission feel that the announcement made by Commercial Hydraulics Ultra Division on
6 March that their factory in Cheltenham (UK) would close with the loss of 252 jobs and that they would
commence consultation after the announcement had been made, fits with the spirit of the law on
employee consultation legislation?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(5 June 2000)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its answer to his Written Question E-0883/00 (1).

(1) See page 178.

(2000/C 374 E/258)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1372/00

by Marianne Thyssen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Proposal for a directive on food supplements

(26 April 2000)

At present there is no harmonised legislation on food supplements in the European Union. This has
serious and persistent effects on the free movement of such goods in the European Union.

In its White Paper on food safety, the Commission announced that it would submit a proposal for a
directive on food supplements to the Council and Parliament in about March 2000. A harmonisation
measure of this kind could solve the above problem.

How is the drafting of the proposal for a directive going, and when will the Commission submit it to the
Council and Parliament?

C 374 E/218

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

28.12.2000

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(26 May 2000)

The Proposal for a Parliament and Council Directive on food supplements which had been announced in
paragraph 105 of the White Paper on Food Safety was adopted by the Commission on 8 May 2000. It will
soon be transmitted to Council and Parliament, and published in the Official Journal.

(2000/C 374 E/259)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1378/00

by Reinhold Messner (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(27 April 2000)

Subject: Asti-Cuneo motorway

The Italian government appears to intend to begin to work on the Asti-Cuneo motorway in the Piedmont
region, on the basis of renewal of the concession granted to SATAP (SocietÆ Autostrada Torino-Piacenza).
This company will thus be responsible for both the Turin-Piacenza link and the Asti-Cuneo link. No call
for tenders has been made. The government has also, by ministerial decree, approved 19 agreements made
with concessionaires (in 19 separate ministerial decrees). The Italian Court of Auditors, which has
unblocked seven of the 19 conventions between ANAS (the Italian national roads authority) and the
19 concessionaires, has not yet given an opinion on the extension of the concession to SATAP. However,
in September 1999 the Counsellor-Delegate of the Court of Auditors responsible for monitoring ANAS
wrote to the Italian government expressing the view that the concession granted by the government to
SATAP in 1991 is not in conformity with the law, since it took the form of a private transaction, despite
the fact that Directive 89/440/EEC (1), under which a public call for tenders is mandatory, was already in
force.

Furthermore, in 1993 the Asti-Cuneo project was refused approval by the environmental impact assess-
ment committee of the Italian environment ministry; this decision was reversed by the Italian cabinet, in
votes in 1994 and 1999, on the basis of changes to the project which, however, entailed neither a fresh
environmental impact assessment nor the republication of the project (which would have allowed the
citizens affected by the proposed route to submit their comments).

In the specific case of the Asti-Cuneo link, an appeal is pending before the Administrative Tribunal of the
Lazio region concerning the Massimimi-Cuneo stretch. In addition, a judicial inquiry is in progress into
SATAP(cid:146)s accounts, following 33 calls for legal investigation of alleged cases of accounting fraud by the
company(cid:146)s administrators.

In view of the above, does the Commission not consider that the extension of the motorway concession by
the Italian government to SATAP, without a call for tenders,
in
particular, to Directives 92/50/EEC (2), 93/36/EEC (3) and 93/37/EEC (4), and that this extension is undesir-
able, given that several legal inquiries are under way into the Italian concessionaire(cid:146)s affairs? Does the
Commission not also consider that there should be an environmental
impact assessment of the new
project?

is contrary to Community law, and,

(1) OJ L 210, 21.7.1989. p. 1.
(2) OJ L 209, 24.7.1992, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 1.
(4) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 54.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(29 May 2000)

The Commission intends to ask the Italian authorities for all the information needed to assess the
compatibility with Community law of the contracts for the construction of the new stretch of the Asti-
Cuneo motorway, and of the extension of the concession to the SATAP company, as raised by the
Honourable Member. Should the examination of that information reveal that the procedures followed were
incompatible with the above-mentioned Community law, the Commission could initiate infringement
proceedings pursuant to Article 226 (ex Article 169) of the EC Treaty.