WRITTEN QUESTION E-3140/00 by Mario Mauro (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Organic plant protection products.
Date: 2000-10-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: animal product, consumer information, consumer protection, crop production, marketing, organic product, pharmaceutical legislation, pharmaceutical product, public health

C 163 E/42

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2001

The strategy includes improving the operation of the internal energy market and strengthening competi-
tion in the downstream oil sector (refining and distribution), developing measures to curtail the demand
for oil products (e.g. energy saving programmes and enhancing the role of alternative energies) and
redressing the balance between modes of transport.

The Commission wishes to discourage the temptation to offset the rise in oil prices by tax reductions. Such
an approach would run counter to the aims of Community environment policy (under the Kyoto Protocol
in particular) and its energy and transport policies, and would be tantamount to transferring tax resources
of Member States to the oil producing countries. It is precisely the opposite approach that is needed, with
genuine harmonisation upwards of excise duties.

Several measures relating to general supply conditions are also proposed. The Community should
strengthen cooperation in the upgrading of production and transport facilities in Russia. The prospects
opened up by oil and gas from the countries of the Caspian Sea basin will be studied. The Commission
will also look at ways of increasing strategic oil stocks. To combat speculation, ways of curbing price
volatility similar to the techniques used on the money markets will be sought.

Use of the euro for transactions would naturally have many advantages for European economic operators.
While market mechanisms will determine the pace at which the euro becomes the reference currency in
this field, a special effort should perhaps be made to negotiate transactions between the energy exporting
countries and the Community in euros.

(1) COM(2000) 631 final.

(2001/C 163 E/041)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3140/00

by Mario Mauro (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 October 2000)

Subject: Organic plant protection products

There is still no body of EU legislation specifically regulating the registration of plant protection products
of organic origin.

Whilst rapid progress is being made in research and the development of organic plant protection products,
with the prospect of products comparable in cost and effect with synthetic products being available in the
future, the lack of regulation may restrict the use of these products and hence their potential benefits in
areas where they compare favourably with conventional plant protection products (lower toxicity for
human beings and other non-targeted organisms, lower costs, less environmental impact, etc).

Furthermore, the lack of regulation allows products onto the market which are of poor quality and little or
no effect, without the necessary experiments and checks being carried out to provide guarantees for the
health of workers and consumers.

1. What steps does the European Commission intend to take to respect the principle of transparency in
the marketing and use of organic plant protection products?

2. What steps does it intend to take to safeguard the health of workers and consumers and to support
developments in this field?

6.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 163 E/43

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(16 January 2001)

The Commission understands that in referring to (cid:145)organic plant protection products(cid:146), the Honorable
1.
Member refers to plant protection products other than the (cid:145)conventional(cid:146) chemical products. This would
cover products such as those of plant or animal origin, pheromones or micro-organisms. Council Directive
91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 on the placing of plant protection products on the market (1), applies to all
such plant protection products. However certain provisions, such as detailed data requirements for
industry, had to be adopted later on by the Commission.

The Commission adopted as a priority detailed requirements for chemical active substances. In principle
the same requirements also apply to extracts of plants or animal products or pheromones. However, the
applicant does not have to submit certain information if he can scientifically justify that the information is
not necessary to demonstrate that
the substance meets the high human health and environmental
requirements of the Directive.

In order to increase transparency for the applicants the Commission is, together with the Member States,
involved in a harmonization at Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) level of
data requirements for pheromones and semiochemicals. An OECD wide harmonisation is crucial to
encourage the development of these substances because it will guarantee almost world wide acceptability
of data sets, thus lowering the cost of development.

Detailed data requirements for micro-organisms are almost finalised and are expected to be adopted by the
Commission in spring 2001.

2.
The Commission is confident that a good balance has been reached between the goal of ensuring
a high level of protection for human health and the environment while not putting unbearable cost on the
shoulders of notifiers for these classes of substances, which would discourage their development.

(1) OJ L 230, 19.8.1991.

(2001/C 163 E/042)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3142/00

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(6 October 2000)

Subject: The situation in Somalia

The outcome of the Djibouti Conference,
in which, among others, the autonomous governments of
Somaliland and Puntland did not take part, threatens to further fragment and destabilise Somali political
life. The de facto recognition hoped for by some sectors of the international community as a prelude to
ending the civil war in Somalia may paradoxically have the opposite effect (cid:129) the resumption of fighting at
Mogadishu and the destabilisation of the north of the country, where the autonomous governments have
maintained political and social stability and relative safety all these years. The outcome was determined by
the fact that the vast majority of the delegates to the Djibouti Conference did not have grass-roots support
and did not comply with the conditions specified to the United Nations by the President, namely the
exclusion of the (cid:145)warlords(cid:146), the involvement of civil society and the implementation of the (cid:145)building blocks(cid:146)
programme,
(cid:145)from the bottom up(cid:146), precisely in order to prevent the conference from failing, as had
happened twelve times before. The list of participants at the Conference reads like a catalogue of the
(cid:145)nomenklatura(cid:146) of the dictatorship of the late Siad Barre, with a strong political, strategic and economic
Islamic fundamentalists, who seem to have played a decisive role in the
alliance with international
decisions emerging from the Conference.

In view of all this, is the Commission aware that the first and only head of a sovereign State to recognise
the new President of Somalia immediately and offer substantial funding was the President of Sudan?