WRITTEN QUESTION E-1679/01 by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Council. Remarks concerning the Structural Funds and the Spanish regions.
Date: 2001-06-15
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Council of the European Union, ministerial meeting, operation of the Institutions

14.2.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 40 E/77

(2002/C 40 E/076)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1679/01

by Isidoro SÆnchez Garc(cid:237)a (ELDR) to the Council

(15 June 2001)

Subject: Remarks concerning the Structural Funds and the Spanish regions

In the interests of the transparency which should characterise all actions of the Community institutions,
and in particular the Council, can the Council provide a text of the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council
held at the beginning of May 2001 in Sweden, and, especially, the remarks made by the Spanish minister,
Mr PiquØ, concerning the Structural Funds and the Spanish regions?

Reply

(8 October 2001)

No Council meeting was held in Sweden at the beginning of May.

The Honourable Member is probably alluding to an informal meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Union
held in Nyk(cid:246)ping on 5 and 6 May 2001. The Honourable Member is reminded that informal meetings of
Ministers are designed to permit as free an exchange of views as possible on general questions. These
meetings are not Council meetings and do not replace the Council(cid:146)s normal activities. As a result, they
have no official agenda, no documents are produced either before or after the meeting by the Council, and
such meetings cannot under any circumstances give rise to formal conclusions or decisions, and any press
releases have to make this clear.

(2002/C 40 E/077)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1685/01

by Christoph Konrad (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 June 2001)

Subject: Adverse effect on competition of system of awarding ECMT (European Conference of Ministers of

Transport) licences

1. What is the Commission(cid:146)s opinion of the ECMT scheme in the context of EU enlargement?

How does the Commission view the fact that large batches of ECMT licences are awarded to only a

2.
relatively small number of East European transport undertakings?

How does the Commission view the development of the ECMT licence system, which was originally
into a

3.
introduced on the basis of a resolution of
systematically entrenched branch of the economy that has the effect of distorting competition?

the Council of Ministers to assist

liberalisation,

If current practice in relation to the award of ECMT licences is continued, does the Commission

4.
consider that new transport undertakings will have fair opportunities for access to the market?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(3 September 2001)

1.
The European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) is not subject to Community law and the
award of ECMT licences is decided by the ECMT member states and not by Community bodies. Since those
States which are currently candidates for accession are going to have free access to the market, their road
hauliers will no longer need ECMT licences for operating in the enlarged Community market and will
therefore use their ECMT licences only for transport between ECMT countries that are not members of the
Community.

2.
There are no (cid:145)large batches(cid:146) of ECMT licences, and with so few of them available they only allow a
limited number of operators, in western, central or eastern Europe, to carry out international transport
operations between ECMT countries for one year.