WRITTEN QUESTION E-0090/02 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Improving the social rehabilitation of prisoners who are addicted to drugs by providing accommodation which is as independent and humane as possible.
Date: 2002-01-25
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Netherlands, drug addiction, imprisonment, prison system, single-family housing, social rehabilitation

26.9.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 229 E/53

Total project cost: € 656,700; Community contribution € 525 360 (82 %) DOH contribution € 131 340
(18 %).

The financial and technical reports have proven to be satisfactory and have been submitted by DOH

7.
according to the contractual deadlines.

DOH’s contribution with regard to the implementation of the projects has been substantial.

DOH has ensured a financial guarantee required for the payment of the first instalment.

The results of the global evaluation are positive, the project was found to be particularly relevant and
important.

As a result, co-operation with DOH has continued on this basis.

(2002/C 229 E/056)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0067/02

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

(25 January 2002)

Subject: Position of the President of the Council on the reform of the CFP to be carried out in 2002

In the public presentation of the priorities of the Spanish presidency of the Council there was regrettably
no mention of the reform of the common fisheries policy, due to be carried out in 2002.

What is the Council’s position on this reform, in particular the adaptation of the policy in line with the
principles underlying the EU and, therefore, the Communitarisation of fishing rights and the reform of the
so-called principle of relative stability, which maintains unacceptable privileges and discrimination in
Community waters, whilst on the consumer markets equality of rights, consistent with the EU, prevails?

Reply

(25 June 2002)

As the Honourable Member may recall, Minister Miguel Arias Cañete stated the priorities of the Spanish
Presidency in the fisheries sector when appearing before the Fisheries Committee of
the European
Parliament on 23 January 2002.

Concerning the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, the Commission has not yet tabled its proposals
and the Council is therefore unable to comment on the Honourable Member’s question.

(2002/C 229 E/057)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0090/02

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(25 January 2002)

Subject: Improving the social

rehabilitation of prisoners who are addicted to drugs by providing

accommodation which is as independent and humane as possible

1.
Is the Commission aware of the report ‘An overview study: assistance to drug users in European
Union prisons’ by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction concerning drug use in
prisons in EU Member States, which indicates that between 15 and 50 % of prisoners in the European
Union either still have or used to have problems with illegal drugs and that, moreover, prisoners are
inclined to take drugs because they see this as a remedy for boredom and also as a way of coming to terms
with the restrictions imposed by prison life and coping with bad news from the outside world and with
the ever-present aggression?

C 229 E/54

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

Is the Commission aware of the progress of the experiment at Amerswiel prison in the municipality
2.
of Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands, which has already been going on for a year, involving eleven group
dwellings, which can house eight women prisoners each, in the form of ordinary housing blocks where
each prisoner has a key to her own bedroom and the warders only lock the front-door each evening, as a
result of which they assume the role of mentors, as described in the newspaper Trouw on 28 December
2001?

3.
Is the Commission aware that this type of incarceration reduces drug use, taking of medicines and
internal violence and assists social rehabilitation, while the prisoners give far more thought to things and
do not wish to risk being returned to a ‘normal’ institution, and that it has been concluded that this
method only fails in the case of prisoners who are likely to escape, aggressive or very lacking in
independence, as a result of which it has now also been decided to provide similar accommodation for
male prisoners at the neighbouring Zuider Bos institution?

4.
Is the Commission aware, furthermore, that in many cases, as a result of such projects as that in the
Spangen district of Delfshaven (an administrative subdivision of the municipality of Rotterdam) whereby
local-authority institutions or local residents’ organisations voluntarily provide accommodation in a shared
dwelling for homeless addicts who have been causing a nuisance but have not committed criminal
offences, addicts are ultimately motivated to participate voluntarily in drugs rehabilitation projects thanks
to the renewed familiarisation with more or less normal living conditions?

5. Will the Commission do its utmost to monitor this experiment in the Dutch prison system closely
and make the results available for the resocialisation of drug addicts who have been convicted of criminal
offences in other Member States?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(28 February 2002)

The Commission is aware of the existence of the report ‘An overview study, assistance to drug users in
European Union Prisons’ by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

In accordance with the subsidiarity principle the competence for prison services falls entirely on the
Member States. The Commission is, however, interested in the developments within the prison services of
Member States, notably in view to addiction-related issues and it puts considerable efforts in remaining
informed. The Commission services recently heard a lecture from an expert from the Netherlands which
did, however, not mention the Amerswiel experiment. The Dutch government has not informed the
Commission of either the experiment in the Penitentiary Institution Amerswiel or the project in Spangen.
Furthermore, the Commission did not receive any evaluation of these or comparable projects which would
render the Commission capable of judging the results of the approach taken.

The Commission E based on the contributions of the Member States E has started the mid-term
evaluation of the ‘EU Action Plan on Drugs (2000-2004)’ and it will carefully take into account aspects
related to prison services. If the Dutch government comes to the conclusion that the Amerswiel project
contributes to meeting the goals of the Action Plan, it may report on this.

(2002/C 229 E/058)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0104/02

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(29 January 2002)

Subject: Helms-Burton Act

1. Will the Commission estimate the number of EU citizens who have been refused access to the United
States following action under the Helms-Burton Act and other similar extra-territorial US laws?