WRITTEN QUESTION E-3939/00 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Council. Outvoting under QMV.
Date: 2000-12-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Council of the European Union, EU statistics, qualified majority

19.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 174 E/195

Each Member State decides its own market surveillance structure. Legal and administrative structures can
thus vary between Member-States. However,
in order to achieve a coherent and high safety level
throughout
the Community co-operation between national authorities is highly desirable and the
Commission supports these co-operative activities in various ways (administrative co-operation, mutual
joint visit programmes, cross-border projects, (cid:133)).

Moreover, the Commission is currently undertaking an analysis of the implementation of certain elements
of the New Approach Directives, with the intention to publish a Commission Communication in 2001.
Market surveillance will constitute an important part of the related reflections.

Whereas third-party certification is often useful before goods are placed on the market, it is essential that
market surveillance be conducted in an independent manner and thus remains the responsibility of
national authorities.

(2001/C 174 E/205)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3939/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Council

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Outvoting under QMV

Will the Council update its previous answer to question E-917/00 (1), giving the number of occasions on
which each Member State had been outvoted under a qualified majority procedure, to include all votes
taken by qualified majority until the end of November 2000?

(1) OJ C 26 E, 26.1.2001, p. 131.

Reply

(12 March 2001)

The Honourable Member will find below an updated version of the summary of the abstentions and votes
against cast by delegations on the adoption of legislative acts by the Council. These statistics include data
until the end of November 2000.

The Council would draw the Honourable Member(cid:146)s attention to the fact that the General Secretariat of the
Council draws up monthly summaries of Council acts which contain lists of legislative and non-legislative
acts of the Council, including the results of votes, explanations of voting and statements for the minutes
when the Council is acting in its capacity as legislator. These monthly summaries can be obtained directly
from the Council(cid:146)s website (http://ue.eu.int, under (cid:145)Transparency(cid:146) and (cid:145)Summary of Council acts(cid:146)).

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000 (1)

B

1

1

3

0

4

DK

0

1

1

0

2

D

4

2

7

1

0

EL

0

0

2

0

0

E

0

1

7

2

0

(1)

First eleven months.

Abstentions

IRL

IT

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

5

1

1

F

1

3

2

0

0

L

2

1

2

0

0

NL

2

0

1

1

1

A

1

1

0

0

0

P

2

2

4

1

0

FIN

0

0

0

0

1

S

0

0

0

0

0

UK

0

3

0

3

1

C 174 E/196

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

19.6.2001

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000 (1)

B

5

0

4

2

1

DK

2

6

7

4

2

D

15

9

11

2

2

EL

2

4

2

1

1

E

4

2

1

1

0

(1)

First eleven months.

Votes against

IRL

IT

2

2

2

1

0

6

6

8

8

1

F

3

3

3

3

0

L

0

1

0

2

0

NL

2

2

14

4

1

A

2

2

3

1

2

P

1

2

2

1

0

FIN

1

4

0

0

0

S

4

7

3

0

1

UK

7

7

2

0

1

(2001/C 174 E/206)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3940/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 December 2000)

Subject: Common agricultural policy and enlargement

Will the Commission cite candidate country official estimates, or private sector or academic estimates of
the cost of applying the current common agricultural policy rules and support prices to as many of the
candidate countries as are available?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(23 January 2001)

Any serious estimate of the cost of applying after accession the current Common Agricultural Policy to the
new Member States would require a reasonably accurate knowledge of the date, and the terms and
conditions of the accession of the countries concerned to the Union. However, these aspects will be
determined in the course of the accession negotiations with these countries. Consequently, any cost
estimate made on the basis of assumptions (cid:129) no matter how carefully constructed (cid:129) will therefore
necessarily be of a hypothetical, speculative and uncertain nature. At the present stage of the negotiating
process the Commission therefore prefers not to publicly cite estimates from sources such as those
mentioned in the question from the Honourable Member.

(2001/C 174 E/207)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3942/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 December 2000)

Subject: Application of the common fisheries policy

Will the Commission state whether the common fisheries policy applies to the coastal waters of all the
Member States and if not, why not?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(22 January 2001)

The geographical scope of the Common Fisheries Policy is the same as that of the EC Treaty. Thus, it
applies to the territories of all Member States (except in the cases of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands) as
well as to certain overseas territories of the Member States, (see Article 299 (ex-Article 227) of the EC
Treaty). These territories, of course, include the territorial seas of the Member States which can be claimed