WRITTEN QUESTION E-2875/00 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Discounts on landing fees for Spanish airlines and the decentralisation of international airport traffic.
Date: 2000-09-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Spain, airport, charges for use of infrastructure, dominant position, infringement of EU law, restriction on competition, tariff preference

18.4.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 113 E/201

In view of this situation, which no doubt reflects a problem also present in other EU fleets, and in the light
of the Union(cid:146)s competences and responsibilities, what action does the Commission intend to take to ensure
that seamen are offered working conditions similar to those in other economic sectors with a view to
ending the present high accident rate?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(27 October 2000)

The Commission shares the Honourable Member(cid:146)s concern about the situation in the fisheries sector,
which must be regarded as a high-risk economic activity area.

Against this background, the Council has adopted occupational health and safety directives with a view to
improving health and safety conditions at work and reducing industrial accidents and occupational
diseases.

This legislation includes Council Directives 92/29/EEC of 31 March 1992 on the minimum safety and
health requirements for improved medical treatment on board vessels (1) and 93/103/EC of 23 November
1993 concerning the minimum safety and health requirements for work on board fishing vessels (2).

Reference should also be made to Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain
aspects of the organisation of working time (2), which was amended by Directive 2000/34/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 2000 to cover other sectors and activities (3). This
means that the sea fisheries sector is now covered by Directive 93/104/EC. A new article (17b) contains
specific provisions in respect of workers on board sea-going fishing vessels. The deadline for transposition
into national law is 1 August 2003.

The Member States must ensure adequate supervision and monitoring of the transposition of these
directives, so that the safety measures for which they provide can make a significant contribution to the
reduction of accidents and occupational diseases in the fisheries sector.

(1) OJ L 113, 30.4.1992.
(2) OJ L 307, 13.12.1993.
(3) OJ L 195, 1.8.2000.

(2001/C 113 E/215)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2875/00

by Camilo Nogueira RomÆn (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(14 September 2000)

Subject: Discounts on landing fees for Spanish airlines and the decentralisation of international airport

traffic

Does the Commission consider that the royal decree of the Spanish state permitting the practice of offering
special discounts on landing fees for Spanish airlines not only constitutes a distortion of competition but
also makes it difficult or impossible for airlines from other Member States to use peripheral airports in the
Spanish state, even though those airports stand in need of direct flights with every region of the EU while
Iberia refuses to operate such flights?

C 113 E/202

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.4.2001

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(27 October 2000)

On 26 July 2000, the Commission adopted Decision 2000/521/EC (1) pursuant to Article 86(3) (ex Article
90) of the EC Treaty. In that Decision, it found that Spain(cid:146)s system of discriminatory landing charges
provided by Royal Decrees 1064/91 and 1268/94 and by Law 41/94 constituted a measure incompatible
with Article 86(1) read with Article 82 (ex Article 86) of the EC Treaty and with the EEA Agreement.

In that Decision, the Commission found that a system of discounts and different landing fees according to
the origin of the flight, as prescribed in the above-mentioned legislation, discriminates in favour of national
airlines. For all categories of planes,
it provides for higher fees for intra-Community flights than for
domestic ones. In addition, it provides for discounts which increase with the number of landings per
month. The discounts increase from 9 % up to 35 %. De facto, this system favours national carriers, as they
alone benefit from the highest discounts.

Accordingly,
Commission of the measures taken within two months of the notification of that Decision.

the Decision required Spain to bring an end to the infringement and to notify the

Whether the existing system of landing fees in Spain makes it difficult or impossible for airlines from other
Member States to use peripheral airports in Spain is a different issue. Up to now, no airline has raised this
point with the Commission.

(1) OJ L 208, 18.8.2000.

(2001/C 113 E/216)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2878/00

by Camilo Nogueira RomÆn (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(13 September 2000)

Subject: Immigration to Europe and deaths of African migrants on the coasts of southern Spain

In circumstances which even recently could only be compared to the attempts of Latin American migrants
to cross the Rio Grande into the US, the coasts of southern Spain, notably Andalusia, and the Canary
Islands are now frequently witnessing the arrival of small vessels crammed with migrants (cid:129) young men
and women, the latter often pregnant (cid:129) most of whom are arrested by the Spanish police (in the last five
days, 600 people suffered such a fate). Corpses are frequently washed up on the beaches and rocks in the
wake of desperate attempts to reach Europe. Spanish society is watching in perplexity as such deaths
threaten to turn into a routine show of cruelty. Meanwhile, the Spanish government, on the pretext of
adaptation to the European norm, has chosen not to regulate and facilitate the necessary inflow of
immigrants (whose presence is particularly called for in the Spanish state, where the population is fast
ageing thanks to the low birth rate), but, instead, to handle immigration in a repressive fashion: it has
recently brought a bill before the national parliament which will toughen the (cid:145)law on foreigners(cid:146) which was
quite recently adopted with the favourable votes of the vast majority of MPs.

Given that the French Presidency of the Council has just announced its intention to harmonise immigra-
tion and asylum law in the EU, and in the face of an overall problem of a harsh and cruel nature (as
further evidenced by the deaths this year of 39 people of Chinese nationality in Dover), what action does
the Council
in relation to the political attitudes of the Spanish government and to
Community law, with a view to preventing these absurd and unacceptable deaths of defenceless persons
on the coasts of Spain?

intend to take,