WRITTEN QUESTION E-2465/01 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council. The internal political enlargement of the Union.
Date: 2001-09-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Union, Treaty of Nice, competence of the Member States, promotion of the European idea, province, public awareness campaign, transparency in decision-making

6.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/35

priorities in the Community’s cohesion policy. Other Community policies including environment policy or
rural development policy are also contributing to the sustainable development of mountain regions
including the Alpine region, and to the conservation of mountain eco-systems and biodiversity.

In addition, in order to better assess the situation of mountain areas, the Commission is about to launch a
study to delimit, in a precise way, the mountain regions within the Community and to collect statistical
data. This should enable the Commission to diagnose, in an objective way, the actual situation. The first
results of this study are expected in the second half of 2002.

(1) COM(2001) 18 final.
(2) COM(2001) 24 final.

(2002/C 134 E/036)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2465/01

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

Subject: The internal political enlargement of the Union

(11 September 2001)

As part of the work to be carried out in preparation for the Laeken Summit, in respect of the 2004
Conference and the Constitution of the European Union, is the Presidency intending to review the future
status of stateless nations? Does it make sense, within a fully political European Union, that nations such as
Scotland, Wales, Galicia, Catalonia or Euskadi do not have the political presence and powers within the
European institutions enjoyed by Member States of comparable cultural and national importance and, in
several cases, smaller populations?

Reply

(12 February 2002)

The Honourable Member will understand that it is not for the Council to comment on the internal
organisation of the Member States of the Union. Questions relating to the future of the Union fall within
the scope of the public debate launched in March 2001. The opening of that debate marked the beginning
of preparations for an intergovernmental conference in 2004, as provided for in the declaration on the
future of the Union adopted in Nice in December 2000. The debate, for which the Presidency,
in
cooperation with the Commission and with the participation of the European Parliament, will encourage
wide-ranging discussion involving all the interested parties, must be actively pursued in the years to come.

At its meeting in Laeken in December 2001, the European Council is to adopt a declaration containing
appropriate initiatives for the continuation of this process, including ways of structuring the preparatory
phase for the IGD 2004. Besides other matters, this process should cover the four questions expressly set
out in the Nice declaration, which aim to improve and permanently monitor the democratic legitimacy
and transparency of the Union and its institutions, to bring them closer to the citizens of the Member
States.

(2002/C 134 E/037)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2467/01

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(11 September 2001)

Subject: Independence of the Western Sahara

Self-determination, by means of a referendum of Saharan citizens, is the only just and decent solution to
the state of marginalisation in which the people of the Western Sahara have been living for 25 years, ever
since the Moroccan regime, counting on European and USA pacifity, illegally occupied the territory by