WRITTEN QUESTION E-2924/01 by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council. Border checks and terrorism.
Date: 2001-10-25
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: border control, competence of the Member States, public order, public safety, terrorism

6.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/151

work programme under Commission Regulation (EC) No 451/2000 of 28 February 2000 laying down the
detailed rules for the implementation of the second and third stages of the work programme referred to in
Article 8(2) of Council Directive 91/414/EEC. It acknowledges that economic reasons could have driven
decisions by manufacturers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), not to notify certain active
substances even though the Directive encourages the formation of industry task forces and the submission
of joint dossiers to reduce the costs of defending substances in the review.

In the absence of assessments of the safety of individual substances, the Commission has no basis on
which it could agree with the hypothesis that this may lead to a situation where safer and more effective
pesticides are taken off the market. Application of Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991
concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market will lead to a situation where only the
safe and effective use of pesticides will be permitted in the Community. Nevertheless, the Commission is
aware of the enormous challenge faced, in particular by SMEs with regard to their capacity for innovation
through the very comprehensive regulatory requirements that aim at guaranteeing health and environ-
mental safety and effective crop protection.

The Directive placed the protection of health and the environment above the needs of agricultural
production and provided for a Commission Decision not to include in Annex I those active substances for
which the requisite information and data were not submitted within prescribed time periods. Recital 15 of
Regulation (EC) No 451/2000 acknowledged that, if necessary, it may be appropriate to re-examine these
provisions for certain uses which are essential and for which there is no alternative available in order to
efficiently protect plants or plant products or to allow the development of alternatives replacing the use of
withdrawn products. It also recognised that the necessity of re-examining those provisions would have to
be demonstrated on a case-by-case basis. Recital 16 of the Regulation states that if, for a particular active
substance, the requirements concerning notification and submission of complete dossiers are not satisfied,
interested parties are not prevented from seeking inclusion of such active substances in Annex I to the
Directive at a later date in accordance with the procedures under Article 6(2) of the Directive.

(2002/C 134 E/151)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2924/01

by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council

(25 October 2001)

Subject: Border checks and terrorism

Will the Council allow countries to re-introduce border checks if they see the need to do so in order to
catch terrorists?

Reply

(12 February 2002)

The Council would inform the Honourable Member that in accordance with Article 2(2) of the Schengen
Convention ‘if public policy or national security require immediate action’ a Member State may
temporarily reinstate checks at its borders and ‘at the earliest opportunity shall inform’ the other Member
States.

The free movement of persons established by the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) may
therefore be restricted when the Member States exercise their responsibilities under such circumstances

In this context, the Council would remind the Honourable Member that, under Article 64(1) of the TEC,
responsibility for maintaining law and order on the territory of the Member States of the European Union
falls within the exclusive competence of the authorities of each Member State. The Council
is not
authorised to take a position on a matter which does not fall within the scope of the powers conferred
upon it by the Treaties.