WRITTEN QUESTION E-3387/00 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Persuading people to travel short distances by air on routes with frequent rail services.
Date: 2000-11-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: carriage of passengers, civil aviation, common transport policy, rail transport, restriction on competition, transport economics

19.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 174 E/45

Business operators have 60 days to send private data about their activities to the Chinese ministry of
information in order to obtain an operating licence. Firms without such a licence will be fined or closed
down altogether.

How does the Commission of the European Communities propose to act to protect the human rights

1.
of Chinese citizens, and in particular the freedom to transmit information?

2.
The Chinese government is threatening to close down all Internet service providers which do not
have the above-mentioned licence. Does the Commission consider that this provision jeopardises the
business activities in China of operators from EU Member States?

How does the Commission propose to take account of these new Chinese regulations in its WTO

3.
negotiations with China?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(8 December 2000)

The Commission is aware of China(cid:146)s recent introduction of new regulations governing the operations of
Internet companies within China and shares some of the concerns expressed by the Honourable Member.

The Commission will monitor the implementation of the new regulations. Any infringements of human
rights that come to light (cid:129) particularly with regard to the publication of news items (cid:129) could be raised, as
appropriate, in the framework of the EU-China human rights dialogue.

The rules appear to place a large responsibility on some internet-related operators to monitor either the
behaviour of their customers or the legality of the content that they may be hosting. It remains to be seen
how the cost of such monitoring will be met. The Commission will in any event check that the new
regulations are carried out in an objective and transparent manner, so that they do not discriminate against
Community operators.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations have led China to commit itself to open its market
progressively for all telecommunications services. With regard to internet access or hosting services for
example, their supply by joint ventures partly held by foreign operators should be possible immediately
upon accession in a number of areas, with a limit upon the foreign participation in the joint venture.
There will be no limit on the areas and foreign participation will be allowed up to 50 %, two years after
China(cid:146)s WTO entry.

The Commission will, together with other partners, endeavour to ensure that China adheres to its WTO
commitments in all areas.

(2001/C 174 E/046)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3387/00

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(3 November 2000)

Subject: Persuading people to travel short distances by air on routes with frequent rail services

1.
Is the Commission aware that, in the Netherlands, the airline Air France advertises discounts for
frequent travellers on the Amsterdam-Paris route? Anyone who flies on the route five times is entitled a
free sixth flight.

2.
Is an advertising campaign of this kind compatible with the major investments made in the
construction of high-speed railway lines in the past 20 years, which, thanks to the provision of fast and
frequent trains from city centre to city centre, afford an alternative means of transport almost as quick as
flying, thus rendering air travel superfluous for passengers on short and middle-distance routes of up to
1 000 km?

C 174 E/46

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

19.6.2001

Does not the Commission agree that, not least on account of the necessary restrictions on land use
3.
for airports and on the noise they generate, it is desirable to discourage people from flying and to promote
rail travel, and that this particularly applies to the route between Amsterdam and Paris, whose airports are
running out of capacity despite their expansion, while moreover there is at least one train every hour on
the route as a whole and while on the section between Brussels and Paris the high-speed line was
completed several years ago?

Is the Commission aware of any other cases in which, despite the existence of a high-speed

4.
international rail service, airlines are seeking to maximise their market share?

5. What practical measures will the Commission adopt in order to discourage the use of aircraft to
travel distances under 1000 km and to improve the competitive position of the railways?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(21 December 2000)

The Commission is not aware of the specific discount scheme, advertised by Air France, for travellers on
the Amsterdam-Paris route. The described pricing policy appears to be compatible in the context of a
liberalised transport market, where prices are established by the normal
functioning of the market
mechanism.

Such advertising campaigns are normal commercial practice compatible with the principle of freedom to
provide transport services and the principle of free choice of transport mode. The decision whether or not
to offer transport services between different origin-destinations is taken by the transport companies
offering those services.

The Commission is fully aware of the capacity and environmental problems at a number of airports and
has addressed those problems in its communication (cid:145)Air Transport and Environment(cid:146) (1),
in which it
highlighted the role of other transport modes, in particular the alternatives which high-speed rail can offer
to ease pressure on ATM-systems and to facilitate the situation at congested airports. In this respect, the
Commission will continue to accelerate its efforts to make rail transport more competitive and better
integrated, facilitating replacement of shorter flights by rail transport.

On the one hand the Commission is of the opinion that efforts to optimise market shares are normal
practice in competitive markets. On the other hand, the Commission believes that an harmonisation of the
conditions of competition between different transport modes is necessary with a view to fair competition.
Other cases exist where passengers have the choice between rail transport and air transport (e.g. London-
Brussels, Paris-Brussels) and where airlines and railways are both trying to optimise their market shares,
taking into account the underlying cost structures. This is the consequence of a market-driven process
whereby the decision to offer transport services is taken by the rail and airline companies concerned. At
the same time decisions on launching intermodal cooperation are also taken by the service providers
themselves, as has been the case for the Brussels-Paris and Frankfurt-Stuttgart routes.

The rail transport and air transport sector are not only competitors but also complementary elements in
the transport chain. In that light the Commission will endeavour to establish the necessary conditions for a
balanced development of the different transport modes and intermodality, making the best possible use of
their comparative advantages. This involves in particular a framework for fair competition and measures
which promote the integration of different modes of transport, such as common reservation systems,
common security rules, integrated baggage handling and compatible ticketing systems.

The forthcoming white paper on transport policy will address a range of measures with a view to a better
integration of rail transport in the logistics chain.

(1) COM(1999) 640 final.