WRITTEN QUESTION E-3589/01 by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Internal market.
Date: 2002-01-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: customs harmonisation, fishery product, food inspection, food safety, import (EU)

C 205 E/46

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.8.2002

(2002/C 205 E/048)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3584/01

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(9 January 2002)

Subject: Dress rules for female employees in Turkey

On 7 December 2001 female civil servants in Turkey were urged by their union to appear at work
wearing trousers as a way of protesting about a regulation of 1982 which specifically bans female public
sector workers from wearing trousers at the workplace. During this protest which was very widely
supported by female civil servants, problems occurred at Izmir where women wearing trousers were barred
from entering their offices by their superiors.

What steps does the Council intend to take, as part of the pre-accession procedure, to prevail upon Turkey
to change its antiquated legislation and outlook, to comply with the European ‘acquis’ and to respect the
human rights and democratic freedoms of women?

Reply

(13 May 2002)

Guaranteeing full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination
and irrespective of, inter alia, gender, is one of the medium-term priorities of the Accession Partnership
with Turkey.

A reform of the civil code was adopted in mid-January in Turkey, the new provisions of which explicitly
stipulate equality between men and women. As part of the process of monitoring implementation of the
Accession Partnership, the Council will ensure that those new legislative provisions are implemented in
accordance with the principle of non-discrimination.

(2002/C 205 E/049)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3589/01

by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Internal market

Checks on imports of fresh fish from third countries at the various FIPs (frontier inspection posts) vary
enormously from one EU country to another in terms of requirements regarding microbiological standards.

The result is that European importers systematically choose airports in EU countries with less stringent
health requirements as the port of entry, with the goods then being transported by land to their final
destination.

This indirectly produces a clear distortion in the internal air cargo market, given that flights are directed to
certain airports for reasons other than competitiveness, geographical proximity to relevant installations
etc., which paradoxically leads to heavy losses for air cargo centres in countries which are more assiduous
in protecting the health of their consumers.

Is the Commission aware of this situation?

What steps will be taken to resolve this issue? On what timescale?

29.8.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 205 E/47

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(14 March 2002)

Checks on imports of products of animal origin are harmonised and clearly laid down in Community
legislation which specifies the documentary, identity, and physical checks that must be carried out in any
border inspection post.

Details of the microbiological testing required for particular high risk products, which are the subject of
including fish, are normally specified in the Decision itself. Member States are
safeguard Decisions,
required to carry out microbiological testing according to national rules for all other products of animal
origin not subject to safeguard measures and routinely examined in border inspection posts.

Commission staff conduct regular inspections of all border inspection posts in the Member States to verify
that correct Community standards of facilities, staffing and procedures are maintained. Should any serious
discrepancies in application of Community legislation be brought to the attention of the Commission, this
would be investigated and further action taken.

(2002/C 205 E/050)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3601/01

by Jorge Hernández Mollar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Plan to facilitate access to electronic commerce for SMEs in Malaga

Around 30 % of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Spanish province of Malaga are connected to
the Internet. However, most of these users log on to the Internet in order to see what is on offer or to
make purchases, with very few using it to make sales.

Malaga Council and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology are launching a pioneer product in
Andalusia aimed at helping SMEs to take advantage of the boom in electronic commerce. An initial
investment is planned of around EUR 180 000.

Can the Commission say in what way it might contribute to this project with a view to making it as
successful as possible?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(8 February 2002)

Under the framework of the GoDigital initiative the Commission has launched a series of awareness and
training initiatives organised by national and regional authorities and other multipliers and specifically
addressed to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It intends to launch a second series of these
events during 2002.

Indeed, the initiative launched by the Malaga Council and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology
seems most interesting as it represents a serious attempt to empower SMEs to circumvent the difficulties
associated with a fully-fledged access to electronic commerce. Although it is not the policy of the
Commission to financially contribute to projects addressed to directly support SMEs to implement
electronic commerce solutions, all projects which have an awareness and training dimension could fall
under the specifications of the call for grant themes that the Commission plans to launch later this year.
The Spanish authorities are welcome to submit a request for grant under the above-mentioned call as soon
as it is published.

Independently of this possibility, and should Spanish authorities express this desire, the Commission is
certainly prepared to examine the possibility of participating in the promotional activities the Spanish
authorities are planning around this initiative.