WRITTEN QUESTION E-2192/00 by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Commission. Assessment of Community strategy vis-à-vis immigration from Africa.
Date: 2000-07-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Africa, EU migration policy, European Union, cooperation policy, crime, human rights, immigration, summit meeting

13.3.2001

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 81 E/171

A possible solution would be to adopt an approach comparable to that for orphan medicinal products.
However, the effects of adopting any separate regulations would be felt only in the long-term. Moreover,
the efficacy of such a policy would be directly dependent on the extent to which it provided an incentive
to the veterinary pharmaceutical industry.

The acuteness of the problem of the non-availability of veterinary medicinal products is essentially due to
the ban which has been in place since 1 January 2000 on the marketing of medicinal products for which
no maximum residue limit had been set by that date,
in the absence of scientific data from the
manufacturers. The Commission is therefore planning to give priority to short-term measures, in particular
the possibility of extrapolating the maximum residue limits set for certain species to other species, on the
basis of the guidelines developed by the Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products of the European
Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products.

In the medium term, the revision of pharmaceutical legislation which is planned for 2001 could also offer
an opportunity to propose adaptations to legislation in order to facilitate the marketing of new veterinary
products or the use of medicinal products which are available.

The Commission is, however, continuing to consider the possibility of also developing a similar policy for
veterinary medicinal products as was devised for orphan medicinal products, but it has not yet adopted a
draft timetable.

(2001/C 81 E/219)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2192/00

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

(3 July 2000)

Subject: Assessment of Community strategy vis-(cid:224)-vis immigration from Africa

How does the Commission assess the results obtained following the implementation of the Community
strategy designed to meet the challenges posed by immigration from Africa, particularly in regions which
form the European Union(cid:146)s external frontiers?

Anwer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(20 September 2000)

The Commission would like to point out that there is no specific Community strategy vis-(cid:224)-vis immigra-
tion from Africa.

It is only since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty on 1 May 1999 that the Community enjoys
powers in the field of immigration policy (Title IV of the EC Treaty, Articles 61 et seq.). At the special
European Council meeting, held in Tampere (Finland) on 15 and 16 October 1999, the Heads of State and
Government of the 15 Member States adopted far-reaching conclusions on the way in which the future
Union immigration and asylum policy should be shaped.

The Heads of State and Government underlined the need for the development of a comprehensive
approach to migration addressing political, human rights and development issues in countries and regions
of origin and transit. In this connection, reference was made to the five action plans prepared by the high
level working group on migration and asylum which target the situation in a number of third countries
and could be considered a first step in the development of such a policy. Of these five action plans, two
focus on African countries, i.e. Morocco and Somalia.

The Heads of State and Government also expressed their support for the management of migration flows
at all stages and called for the development, in close co-operation with countries of origin and transit, of
information campaigns on the possibilities for legal migration, and for the prevention of all forms of
smuggling and trafficking in human beings. To this end, they invited the Council and Member States to
tackle, at its source, illegal immigration, especially by combating those who engage in trafficking of human
beings and economic exploitation of migrants, to adopt legislation to this end, foreseeing severe sanctions
against this serious crime, to direct, together with Europol, efforts to detecting and dismantling the
organised criminal networks involved, to secure the rights of the victims of trafficking in people with

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13.3.2001

special emphasis on women and children, to assist the countries of origin and of transit in order to help
the authorities of those countries to strengthen their ability to combat effectively trafficking in human
beings and to cope with their readmission obligations towards the Union and the Member States, and to
promote closer co-operation and mutual technical assistance between the Member States(cid:146) border control
services, such as exchange programmes and technology transfers, especially on maritime borders, and for
the rapid inclusion of the applicant States in this co-operation.

When presenting initiatives of the Union relevant for migration isues related to Africa, the Africa-Europe
Summit, which was organised under the aegis of the Organization of African Union (OAU) and the Union
the Heads of State and
in Cairo on 3 and 4 April 2000, deserves mentioning.
Governments of the African States and of the Union as well as the President of the Commission gave
special attention to migration issues. They acknowledged that a comprehensive and integrated approach is
needed to tackle the issue of migration and the separate but related issue of asylum and will co-operate in
this field. It was recognised that the loss of skilled migrants from Africa constitutes a continental brain-
drain problem. The need for co-operation to address the root causes of migration both in countries of
origin and transit and in recipient countries was underlined.

In a declaration,

In the action plan, which accompanied the declaration, the participants agreed a set of measures in the
area of migration and which should guide the activities until the second summit to take place in Europe in
2003. The measures include the agreement to provide support, as appropriate, to African countries in
ensuring free intra-African mobility of labour and migration in the spirit of the Abuja treaty. Heads of
State and Government also agreed to collaborate in addressing the root causes of migration and asylum-
seeking in source, transit and recipient countries and to collaborate further in the issue of the reciprocal
integration of migrants, migrant rights and re-admission agreements between the European and African
countries.

(2001/C 81 E/220)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2195/00

by Mar(cid:237)a Sornosa Mart(cid:237)nez (PSE) to the Commission

(3 July 2000)

Subject: Valencia-Tarragona rail link: failure to comply with Directive 85/337/EEC as regards the Benic(cid:224)s-

sim-Oropesa section

In a parliamentary question tabled in January (E-0324/00) (1) I reported that,
in the case of the new
Valencia-Tarragona rail link (85 % of the construction cost of which is being met from the Cohesion Fund),
a statutory environmental study had not been carried out in respect of the section between Benic(cid:224)ssim and
Oropesa. In her reply of 29 March, Mrs Wallstr(cid:246)m, Commissioner, took the view that Directive 85/337/
EEC (2) was applicable to the project and she announced that steps would be taken to ensure compliance
with Community law.

It would appear that, in their response to the Commission enquiries, the Spanish authorities (in the form
of the country(cid:146)s Foreign Ministry) maintain that:

(cid:129) what is involved is a modification to the original project,

(cid:129) an environmental impact study is not required for the construction work in question since such work
is considered to be included in the general town planning scheme for Benic(cid:224)ssim, in respect of which
such a study has been carried out.

The fact of the matter is that, on the one hand, the only thing that exists with regard to Benic(cid:224)ssim is a
document described as an (cid:145)environmental integration study(cid:146) which does not meet the requirements of
Community law and, on the other, the largest section of the track will affect the town of Oropesa, the
general town planning scheme for which does not include any environmental impact assessment.