WRITTEN QUESTION E-0445/02 by Eluned Morgan (PSE) to the Commission. Regional and minority languages.
Date: 2002-02-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: budget, budget policy, budgetary discipline (EU), cultural heritage, minority language, regional language

5.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 301 E/41

Lastly, as Community law stands, there is no rule of secondary law concerning the harmonisation of
motor-vehicle taxation that obliges Member States to reduce the overall level of the taxes concerned.

The Commission would point out that Denmark, to comply with Article 90(1) of the EC Treaty, must not
subject second-hand cars and motorcycles shipped to its territory from another Member State to a
registration tax which, even in a limited number of cases, exceeds the amount of residual tax incorporated
in the value of similar vehicles already registered in the national territory. The latter have already been
taxed on registration in the national territory and such tax represents part of their value when they cease
to be new. As the vehicle is used,
tax diminishes in step with its value. To avoid
discrimination against ‘imports’, the reduction in the tax applicable to the ‘imported’ second-hand vehicle
(compared with the tax due on such a vehicle if new) must therefore be proportional to its true
depreciation.

this residual

On 22 February 2001 the Court of Justice issued another long-awaited ruling in a similar case. This ruling,
which concurs with the Commission’s point of view, calls for a number of Member States to revise their
current system for calculating the assessment basis for second-hand vehicles (3). The expected revision will
be more advantageous for EU citizens and the traders concerned.

(1) OJ L 145, 29.6.1995.
(2) Case C-47/88 Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Denmark ECR [1990] p. I-4509.
(3) Case C-393/98 Ministério Público and António Gomes Valente v Fazenda Pública ECR [2001] Page I-1327.

(2002/C 301 E/042)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0445/02

by Eluned Morgan (PSE) to the Commission

(21 February 2002)

Subject: Regional and minority languages

How does the Commission intend to spend the money that has been allocated to budget line B3-1007 in
the EU budget for 2002?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(17 April 2002)

In a letter of 29 November 2001 to Mr Terry Wynn, Chairman of the Committee for Budgets, the Member
of the Commission responsible for the Budget, informed the Parliament that the Commission would not be
in a position to implement the appropriations under budget line B3-1007 (Preparatory actions concerning
promotion and safeguard of regional and minority languages, dialects and cultures)
in view of the
restrictions on preparatory actions set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the
Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary
procedure. The Commission regrets to inform the Honourable Member that it can find no means of
executing this line while respecting its obligations vis-à-vis the Parliament and the Council under the said
Agreement.

Preparatory actions for safeguarding and promoting regional and minority languages and cultures were
suspended after 2000 because there was no prospect of the legislative procedure for a legal base being
concluded before the end of the third financial year of preparatory actions. This objection still stands.

The Commission has announced that it will conduct a thoroughgoing evaluation of the European Year of
Languages 2001 from which it will draw conclusions with a view to presenting proposals for actions in
favour of linguistic diversity and language learning in 2003.