WRITTEN QUESTION E-0306/02 by Miquel Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Poverty.
Date: 2002-02-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU statistics, poverty, statistical method

C 172 E/180

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.7.2002

(2002/C 172 E/188)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0305/02

by Jorge Moreira Da Silva (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 February 2002)

Subject: Protection of pedestrians on the public thoroughfares

Having regard to:

  Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU concerning the right of the citizen to

protection,

  the dangers and unfavourable conditions affecting non-motorised road users in the European Union

(37 % of victims (1)),

  the principle of fair division of use of public thoroughfares in towns, built-up areas, villages and

residential areas in general,

Can the Commission answer the following questions:

  What rule specifically defines the space which must be made available to a pedestrian on public
thoroughfares to ensure ease of movement and effective protection against danger directly arising
from motorised traffic (space, obstacles, active safety measures)?

  If this rule exists, what administrative/legislative provision requires it to be implemented by the

Member States and local authorities?

  What administrative/legislative measure exists to enable citizens to uphold their right to safety from

the dangers and inconvenience caused by automobiles?

(1) Eurostat Carine Collin: 44 000 deaths and 1 700 000 injured in 1998. (Section 7, 3/2000 available on http://
europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/Public/datashop/print-product/FR?catalogue=Eurostat&product=CA-NZ-00-003-_-I-
FR&mode=download.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(8 April 2002)

Road safety is one of the Commission’s priorities, as clearly stated in the White Paper on European
transport for 2010: time to decide (1). Given the annual death toll of 40 000, 16 % of victims being
pedestrians, the White Paper sets the ambitious target of cutting the number of deaths on public roads and
thoroughfares by 50 %. It is in this context that the Commission is preparing a road safety programme for
the period 2002-2010.

However, the Commission would stress that there is no EU rule specifically defining the space which must
be made available to a pedestrian on public thoroughfares, as the principle of subsidiarity applies here.

Citizens may therefore invoke their rights regarding proper space for pedestrians under national, regional
or local administrative provisions and laws.

(1) COM(2001) 370 final.

(2002/C 172 E/189)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0306/02

by Miquel Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 February 2002)

Subject: Poverty

In its communication to the European Council to be held in Barcelona in Spring, the Commission seeks to
halve the number of persons threatened by poverty.

The most recent statistics it appear date from 1996, when 60 million were ‘threatened by poverty’, that is
to say 18 % of the population as a whole and 25 % of young people under 18.

18.7.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 172 E/181

Given that Eurostat has considerable statistical resources at its disposal, can the Commission explain why it
is that social data of such importance are not regularly updated?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(16 April 2002)

In its Communication to the European Council in Barcelona (1), the Commission uses data on income
distribution and poverty which refer to 1998. These are the most recent data which are comparable at
European level; the source is the European Community Household Panel (ECHP).

The Commission agrees with the Honourable Member that the delay in the availability of data in this field
is far too long. It plans to speed up the production of data arising from the ECHP, so that the data
available for the spring European Council in 2003 will be from the survey carried out in 2000, the delay
having been reduced by a further year.

The Commission has also proposed to launch a new instrument, the Statistics on Income and Living
Conditions (EU-SILC) (2), the aim of which is to establish a common framework for the systematic
production of Community statistics on income and living conditions. EU-SILC is foreseen to be launched
in 2003 in ten Member States (in 2004 for the others) and is to become the reference source of
comparative statistics on income distribution and social exclusion at Union level. Under EU-SILC, it is
planned that the delay for data production will be reduced to two years: data relating to 2003 will be
available in the form of micro-data files in February 2005 and will be published in June 2005.

(1) COM(2002) 14 final.
(2) COM(2001) 754 final.

(2002/C 172 E/190)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0308/02

by Marie Isler Béguin (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 February 2002)

Subject: Community programme of environmental education at school

The consequences and impact of contemporary environmental problems such as global warming
meteorological disruptions or atmospheric pollution respect neither frontiers nor generations.

While the effect of these environmental disasters is felt indiscriminately by entire populations, direct
responsibility can nevertheless be traced to a western tradition of industrial policies and sociological
attitudes which either disregard or are unaware of ecological hazards.

In the past, the European Union has frequently been able to provide a joint response to major issues
affecting the world.

Does the Commission agree that ‘prevention is better than cure’ and that a Community policy of
environmental protection and education would in the final analysis inevitably prove less expensive than
the total cost of environmental disasters and planetary cataclysms?

Does it not consider it indispensable and a matter of priority to widen the scope of its activities in step
with the increasing concerns being felt by the Community and the dangers affecting it, incorporating a
common environmental education programme at school within the education systems and curricula of the
Member States and applicant countries?

Is it desirable to introduce education initiatives at Community level
generations a basic sense of responsibility among European citizens with regard to the environment?

to forge and distil

for future