WRITTEN QUESTION E-2400/01 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Moroccan pressure to reduce to 15 the marriageable age for women possessing the nationality of an EU Member State.
Date: 2001-08-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU national, Morocco, association agreement (EU), child protection, dual nationality, family law, marriage, position of women

C 115 E/74

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

16.5.2002

The Commission believes the Mont Blanc Tunnel can only be reopened in line with safety criteria and once
all the relevant conditions have been met. These measures will have to be checked by the competent
national authorities. The Commission would emphasise that one of the main measures will have to be to
separate the traffic travelling through the tunnel. This will help limit the number of lorries on this route.

Regarding the control of terrestrial transport flows in the Alpine region, and particularly in the Mont Blanc
area, the Commission considers that the priority must be to build and bring into service as soon as
possible the two rail routes already identified in the 1996 guidelines for the trans-European transport
network, namely the Lyon-Turin route and the Brenner route, as it has already stated on various occasions.
The fact that Switzerland is currently building the longest tunnel in the world under the St Gotthard Pass
shows that such projects can realistically be undertaken.

In addition to the creation of new alternatives and infrastructure to handle a major part of the goods traffic
crossing the region, road charging will need to be used as a traffic regulation tool. The White Paper
proposes an approach whereby current charging systems would be modified to reflect more fully all the
costs linked to each mode of transport. To help achieve the goal of sustainable mobility, income from such
systems could be used to develop more environmentally friendly modes of transport.

It is with this in mind that the Commission has proposed signing the transport Protocol to the Alpine
Convention on behalf of the Community so as to send out a political signal
in support of modal
rebalancing, even if the relevant provisions allow some degree of flexibility to be determined on a case-by-
to come up with medium and long-term
case basis. More generally,
environmental objectives for a sustainable transport system. This will be set out in detail in a Commission
communication in 2002.

the Commission intends

(1) COM(2001) 370 final.

(2002/C 115 E/078)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2400/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(20 August 2001)

Subject: Moroccan pressure to reduce to 15 the marriageable age for women possessing the nationality of

an EU Member State

1.
Is the Commission aware that Moroccan nationality law assumes that residents of EU Member States
originating from Morocco who have obtained the nationality of the relevant Member State also retain
Moroccan nationality in perpetuity along with their descendants?

2.
Is it also aware that this nationality law means that such residents possessing the nationality of an EU
Member State continue to be covered by Moroccan family law which does not recognise foreign
procedures governing marriage and divorce?

3.
Is it aware of Moroccan pressure on the Netherlands to apply to anyone also possessing Moroccan
nationality Moroccan family law whereby men, like Dutch nationals, may marry from the age of 18 whilst
women may marry from as early as 15?

Are there EU Member States that stipulate a different marriageable age for women than for men? If

4.
so, which Member States and what minimum ages are involved?

5.
Have other Member States received a similar request from the Moroccan Government as that made
to the Netherlands, in particular, Member States with many residents of Moroccan origin such as France,
Belgium and Spain, and which Member States have acceded to this request or intend to do so?

16.5.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 115 E/75

Does it share my view that implementing this Moroccan demand opens the way to parents marrying
6.
off young girls, that it breaches international conventions on the protection of children and that, from the
point of view of equality of opportunity and freedom of choice, it is undesirable to allow women to marry
at too young an age or at a lower age than men?

Is it aware that, in response to pressure from women and human rights organisations, the Moroccan
7.
authorities presented an action plan in March 1999 incorporating the raising of the marriageable age for
girls from 15 to 18 and that, for some months, a special committee has been looking into a possible
revision of the law?

8.
Is it prepared to promote a coordinated approach by the EU Member States in order to chart the
adverse effects of Moroccan nationality and family law on people possessing the nationality of an EU
Member State, having regard to equality of opportunity and self-determination for women and men, and to
undertake a joint effort with a view to possible consultation by the Member States with the Moroccan
Government?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(15 October 2001)

1., 2. and 3.
The Commission was not aware of the situation regarding Moroccan/Member State dual
nationality, nor of the fact that persons possessing such dual nationality came under the Moroccan family
code, nor of Moroccan pressures on the Netherlands to reduce the marriageable age of girls resident there
from 18 to 15.

4., 5. and 8. We advise the Honourable Member to direct these questions to the Council, since they are
not within the Commission’s competence.

The Commission believes that Morocco will take account of

6.
protection of children in framing policy on the status of women.

international conventions on the

7.
The Commission is fully aware of the Moroccan government’s ‘action plan for the integration of
women into the country’s development’ and the recent setting-up of an advisory commission to revise the
code on women’s individual rights. The Commission gave its support to the Moroccan government’s
efforts to improve the situation of women at the first meeting of the Association Council, which was held
on 9 October 2000 in Luxembourg, and will do so again at the second Council meeting in October this
year (1).

(1) The EU and Morocco signed an Association Agreement, which came into force in March 2000 (OJ L 70,

18.3.2000).

(2002/C 115 E/079)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2407/01

by Caroline Jackson (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(21 August 2001)

Subject: Pulsed radio transmissions

For the last 10 years, and possibly much longer, the inhabitants of the United Kingdom and other
European countries have, it is claimed, been subject to and suffered from adverse health effects caused by
pulsed radio transmissions emitted from transmitters in France, Germany, Norway, Denmark,
the
Netherlands and Ireland. The transmissions belong to the Long Range Navigational System (LORAN-C)
acquired from the US Government and now known as the North West European LORAN-C System
(NELS). There is a possibility that such pulsed transmissions are conveyed and concentrated into people’s
homes via the public electricity supply system where they may then act upon the brain and nervous
system of those who are affected. The adverse health effects are apparently now well-documented as are
the locations affected.

In the light of this, is the Commission prepared to address the problem through research and/or legislation
to relieve the suffering of those European citizens who may be affected?