WRITTEN QUESTION E-0394/01 by Ioannis Marínos (PPE-DE) and Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos (PPE-DE) to the Council. ETA terrorist operations.
Date: 2001-02-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Basque Country, terrorism

4.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 340 E/21

(2001/C 340 E/027)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0394/01

by Ioannis Mar(cid:237)nos (PPE-DE) and Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos (PPE-DE) to the Council

Subject: ETA terrorist operations

(20 February 2001)

According to information from the reputable Spanish newspaper El Pais, police sources and the public, the
terrorist organisation ETA has extorted substantial sums of money from small businessmen and small
businesses in the Basque country by sending them letters threatening their lives. Recently, a death-threat
against the famous French footballer, Lizarazu, was also given wide publicity. Furthermore, the newspaper
Diario 16 revealed that many Basque footballers have received similar threats from ETA and pay extortion
money to avoid assassination by that organisation. Apparently, the extortion money paid by the terror
victims to avoid assassination is used to finance ETA(cid:146)s deadly terrorist operations and to enable the
terrorists to live in comfort without having to work.

Does the Council not think that, instead of confining itself to condemning violence and expressing its
sorrow for the victims every time that ETA commits an assassination (which the European Parliament also
does, of course), it would be more effective to point out that the terrorists concerned (cid:129) claiming that they
seek the independence of the Basque country (cid:129) are also fighting for their own personal wealth? Would
not such an accusation severely undermine their
their alleged
revolutionary selflessness and their patriotic aspirations?

standing since it would discredit

In the light of these facts, will the Council draw up an integrated policy to combat terrorism?

Reply

(16 July 2001)

The Council is working towards an integrated approach against the scourge of terrorism. Every six months
a paper on the threat that it poses is drawn up and exchanges of views on recent incidents take place
regularly.

One of the objectives of European security and defence policy is to combat terrorism. More specifically,
the Council Recommendation of 9 December 1999 provides for cooperation between Member States(cid:146)
authorities in financing the fight against terrorism.

(2001/C 340 E/028)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0403/01

by Toine Manders (ELDR), Ward Beysen (ELDR), Graham Watson (ELDR),
Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) and Ole Andreasen (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Complaint about abuse of UEFA(cid:146)s position

(15 February 2001)

We have recently heard that UEFA has banned a new initiative, the Euro League, from the football market.
If the Euro League does start up, both the clubs and their players taking part will be banned from taking
part in other events organised by UEFA and the players will be barred from appearing for their national
teams.

Football clubs(cid:146) income is no longer determined by the number of spectators but by media revenue which is
what is used to pay players(cid:146) salaries. The small EU countries are at a disproportionate disadvantage in this
respect and consequently they are no longer able to compete with the large countries. To meet this
challenge a number of small countries (Belgium, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden,
the Netherlands and
Denmark) have proposed having a competition (the Euro League) between their best clubs. Bringing these
countries together opens up the field and makes the matches more attractive to the media and to sponsors,
and will enable small countries to compete once again with the major football countries such as Spain,
France, Germany, England and Italy. Since the Commission agrees with us that professional football is an