WRITTEN QUESTION E-1591/00 by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Commission. Canary Islands transport network project.
Date: 2000-05-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Canary Islands, eligibility criteria, peripheral region, transport network

C 72 E/84

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.3.2001

(2001/C 72 E/099)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1591/00

by Isidoro SÆnchez Garc(cid:237)a (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Canary Islands transport network project

(19 May 2000)

Was consideration given to the Canary Islands(cid:146) status as an outermost region, as provided for in
Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty, when the Canary Islands transport network project, submitted by the
Directorate-General for Transport of the Government of the Canary Islands, was examined?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(11 July 2000)

The 1999 call for proposals in order to obtain transport subsidies (1) aims at the selection of the most
promising projects submitted for joint financing by the Commission. In this connection, that call sets out a
certain number of practical aims to be met by such projects, and these include,
in particular, safety
promotion, providing the Commission with deeper knowledge, acquiring statistical data in all areas of
transport, etc. The call (for proposals) also describes in detail the practical scope of those projects, the
results anticipated and the conditions under which they are eligible.

Outermost
location is well represented in several European transport policy activities, such as the
Community approaches to trans-European networks. However, in this call outermost location is not a
in order to be eligible,
principal selection criterion. Conversely the wording of the call stresses that,
projects must possess a significant European dimension and value. When the project submitted by the
Canarian authorities was assessed it was considered to be attractive, but its European dimension was
considered to be inadequate.

(1) OJ C 41, 16.2.1999.

(2001/C 72 E/100)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1596/00

by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission

(19 May 2000)

Subject: Pre-trial detention

On 6 July 1997 Jean-Jacques Pitalugue, Gilles Benhayoun, Jean-Luc Della Justina and Maxime Briat were
arrested for having produced colour photocopies of banknotes to a value of FF 20 800, some of which
were put into circulation (to a value of FF 3 500) despite their poor quality.

The men were arrested and charged and are currently being detained at Fresnes remand prison under a
detention order of limited duration dated 6 July 1997 and an order of 30 June 1998 extending their pre-
trial detention as from 6 July 1998, renewed again on 4 January 1999 as from 6 January 1999.

On 6 January 2000 all four accused were committed for trial at the Assize Court in the department of
Loiret on charges of forgery or counterfeiting of banknotes that are legal tender in France, by order of the
Orleans Indictments Division, although they were discharged on the count of conspiracy. The four accused
are now in their thirty-fifth month of pre-trial detention.

Does the Commission not consider that the criteria generally applied as regards the length of pre-trial
detention have not in fact been complied with in this case? If this is so, does it not consider that it should
intervene, within the framework of its new powers in the area of justice under the Amsterdam Treaty, to
secure compliance with reasonable periods for pre-trial detention and judgments or, failing that, the release
of defendants under Article 5(3) of the European Human Rights Convention?