WRITTEN QUESTION P-2388/00 by Rosemarie Müller (PSE) to the Commission. School hours.
Date: 2000-07-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Eurydice, organisation of teaching, report, teaching quality

13.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 81 E/195

(2001/C 81 E/249)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2382/00

by Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Death of refugees at the EU(cid:146)s external borders

(7 July 2000)

1.
How many refugees were found dead, and how many found injured, at the EU(cid:146)s external borders in
1999 and in the first six months of 2000? (Please give a breakdown by month, origin of the refugees,
where found (country and region) and nature of injuries).

2. What action is the Commission taking to prevent future (cid:145)tragedies(cid:146) such as the death of 58 refugees
in Dover?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(28 July 2000)

It is not possible to produce a statistical breakdown on the number of refugees found dead at the external
borders of the European Union because such statistics are not available at Community level. The Statistical
Office of the European Community (Eurostat) neither collects, nor otherwise possesses, figures on this
issue.

The Commission shares the feelings and concerns caused by the tragedy of Dover. It considers that this
event illustrates in a particularly dramatic way the need for a common policy in the area of illegal
immigration, balancing both the fight against the international criminal networks organising the trafficking
in human beings, and the provision of appropriate protection to those falling victim to it.

The Commission recalls that the framework for such a balanced policy has already been outlined in the
conclusions of the Tampere European Council of 15/16 October 1999. For the implementation of these
conclusions, clear deadlines have been set by the European Council as well as by the Treaty of Amsterdam.
Accordingly, in order to achieve sustainable results, any common policy in this field will have to pursue a
global approach. This implies, as was explicitly recognised in the Tampere conclusions, that the Commun-
ity will have to develop a closer partnership with countries of origin and transit on migration issues, to put
in place a common asylum regime, to ensure a fair treatment of third country nationals legally residing on
the territory of a Member State and to achieve a more efficient management of migration flows,
in
particular by tackling illegal
immigration at its source, especially by combatting those who engage in
trafficking in human beings and economic exploitation of migrants.

It would clearly go beyond the framework of this reply to list, in all details, the numerous actions and
initiatives in the first and third pillar that have already been launched or planned. Instead, the Commission
refers the Honourable Member to its scoreboard, published on 24 March 2000 (1), as well as to the joint
declaration of the Council and the Commission on the events in Dover, delivered at the plenary session of
the Parliament on 4 July 2000.

(1) COM(2000) 167 final.

(2001/C 81 E/250)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2388/00

by Rosemarie M(cid:252)ller (PSE) to the Commission

(7 July 2000)

Subject: School hours

In Europe school hours are organised in two ways: there are half-day schools and whole-day schools.
In the light of the recent report on the standard of school education, does the Commission have any
evidence to suggest a correlation between standards of educational attainment and school hours?

C 81 E/196

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

13.3.2001

If so, with what result? What conclusions does the Commission draw in respect of future activities in the
educational field?

If not, why did the Commission not consider this organisational question in its evaluation? Will the
Commission consider it in future?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(8 September 2000)

The (cid:145)European Report on Quality of School Education(cid:146) was drawn up firstly on the basis of carefully
selected indicators, limited to sixteen, and secondly on the basis of existing sources of information. This
report is based on the work of a committee of experts following an initiative of the education ministers of
26 European countries.

Clearly, the organisation of school hours differs from country to country but also within many countries
themselves as a result of the increasing autonomy granted to local authorities and schools in the
management of school hours. Opting for one or another means of organisation is in part an attempt to
adapt to geographic, social or climatic conditions.

in order to establish correlations with pupils(cid:146)

it is
Furthermore,
necessary to examine not only the organisation of the school day but also the content of the curriculum,
the number of hours allocated to the various subjects, the time of day when the subjects are taught, the
teaching methods, etc. The freedom granted to schools in the vast majority of countries to define methods
and organise timetables means that reliable comparisons cannot be drawn because so many variables must
be taken into account.

learning and the quality of teaching,

The (cid:145)Eurydice(cid:146) network (European network of information on education in Europe) contains descriptive
information about the organisation of the school calendar, but there are no comparable data at European
the IEA (International
level, and there are currently no plans for research in this field. Moreover,
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) has tried on several occasions to establish
relationships between the levels of attainment measured in basic disciplines (mathematics, reading, etc.)
and criteria governing the operation of the school system, including the time allocated to each subject, but
no direct relationship could be established between the number of hours and the marks obtained. It would
be more useful for studies to look into the correlation between the whole question of the pace of school
teaching and the quality of
the education received, rather than into the correlation between the
organisation of the school day and the quality.

there is no significant correlation between the
For these reasons,
organisation of school time into half-days or whole days and teaching quality, and therefore does not
plan any research into this subject.

the Commission considers that

(2001/C 81 E/251)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2391/00

by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission

(7 July 2000)

Subject: Import permit for the Shifco fleet

Somalia is not one of the third countries allowed to import fishery products intended for human
consumption listed in the Annex to Commission Decision 97/296/EC (1) and hence imports from that
country have not been authorised since 1 July 1998, the date on which the Community law governing the
harmonisation of conditions for the import of fishery products came into force.

On 5 February 1998 Shifco, a Somali firm with 5 freezer ships operating in the fisheries sector, applied for
Community import authorisation, on the basis of Article 11(6) of Council Directive of 22 July 1991
(91/493/EEC (2)), which allows derogations to be requested in particular situations.