WRITTEN QUESTION E-0108/01 by Dana Scallon (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Failure of Ireland to appoint an ombudsman for farming.
Date: 2001-02-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU agriculture committee, Ireland, competence of the Member States, mediator

13.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 318 E/27

to recruit controllers in order to deal with the expected shortfall. The Commission is preparing to put
forward proposals for laws in order to follow up the report(cid:146)s findings.

2.
Air-transport providers carry out their responsibilities within national airspace. There is efficient
cooperation among such companies, which means that the passage of aircraft from one national territory
to another is generally fluid. Nevertheless, the constraints on air traffic make an approach based on
national territories increasingly obsolete. Moreover the Commission is planning to regulate the use and
form of airspace in order to manage it as a continuum.

Civil traffic must use corridors that often do not permit optimum traffic organisation, more
3. and 4.
especially because of the need to by-pass areas used for military purposes. In certain Member States those
areas are large and constitute a genuine impediment even though this varies with time. It is felt that more
rational organisation of traffic would enable capacity to be increased by many multiples of 10 % in certain
cases. The Commission is funding a research project which will enable the gains in capacity to be expected
from organising traffic more rationally to be plotted more accurately.

5.
The Commission feels that the actual limits do not so much reside in air traffic control as in the lack
of airport capacity and in the need to soften the environmental impact of air transport. However, the
limits are not immutable: they depend, in particular, on any progress which may be achieved in improved
airport operation and in the scope for using secondary airports, and in reducing noise nuisances and the
emission of greenhouse gases.

6.
The Commission is seeking to strike a balance between these concerns and the need to have a high-
performance transport network in which air transport occupies a prominent place. It is currently drafting
a white paper on the development of transport policy which is intended to fuel a debate on congestion
and intermodal transport.

(2001/C 318 E/028)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0108/01

by Dana Scallon (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 February 2001)

Subject: Failure of Ireland to appoint an ombudsman for farming

Why has Ireland not appointed an ombudsman for farming?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(20 February 2001)

The EC Treaty only foresees the nomination of a Community ombudsman. A national ombudsman for
agriculture is not an issue governed by any Community legislation and is therefore outside the competence
of the Commission.

The Honourable Member is requested to address the question to the Irish national authorities.

(2001/C 318 E/029)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0241/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(7 February 2001)

Subject: Abuse by animal-meal exporters of discrepancies in trading statistics

1.
Can the Commission confirm that since customs checks were abolished, it has not been possible
since 1993 for reliable statistics to be compiled for the volume of products traded and transported across
internal European Union borders?