WRITTEN QUESTION E-0599/02 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission. Use of health warning photographs on cigarette packs.
Date: 2002-03-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: consumer information, labelling, marketing, public health, smoking, tobacco industry

18.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 172 E/217

(2002/C 172 E/231)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0598/02

by William Newton Dunn (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Bereavement grants for widows and widowers

(6 March 2002)

A constituent of mine, whose husband died last November, has discovered that the British Government last
April changed the law within Britain, without publicity she says, to limit the Bereavement Grant which is
paid to widows and widowers to a maximum of one year.

Can the Commission inform me what is the comparative situation in other Member States of the Union?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(4 April 2002)

It is true that reforms were introduced in the United Kingdom in April 2001.

They include:

/ doubling the value of the lump sum to GBP 2000;

/ paying a Widowed Parent’s Allowance until the youngest child ceases full time further education;

/ paying a time limited bereavement allowance where there are no dependent children. Widows and
widowers aged 45 and over with no dependent children will receive a weekly benefit for one year;

/ for the first time providing widowers with children with assistance on an equal footing with widows.

The Commission is sending direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat copies of
tables from its MISSOC publication which show the situation on survivors’ benefits in the different
Member States.

The MISSOC publication is also available on the Commission’s website: www.europa.eu.int/comm/
employment_social/missoc2001/index_en.htm

(2002/C 172 E/232)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0599/02

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 March 2002)

Subject: Use of health warning photographs on cigarette packs

When does the Commission expect to be in a position to adopt the rules and internal market guidance for
Member States regarding the use on cigarette packs of colour photographs or other illustrations to depict
and explain the health consequences of smoking, as required by the directive on the manufacture,
presentation and sale of tobacco products.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(27 March 2002)

Under Article 5(3) of Directive 2001/37/EEC of the Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2001 on the
approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the
manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products (1), the Commission is required to adopt, before
31 December 2002, rules for the use of colour photographs or other illustrations to depict and explain the

C 172 E/218

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.7.2002

internal market provisions are not
health consequences of smoking, with a view to ensuring that
undermined. In this process, the Commission has to submit to the Regulatory Committee established by
Article 10(1) of the above Directive a draft of the measures to be taken, on which the Committee has to
give an opinion.

The Commission has started work on the establishment of such rules and will do its utmost to respect the
above time frame. However, the Commission would like to remind the Honourable Member of the fact
that when the above Directive was adopted, the Commission made a formal statement in which it drew
the Parliament’s and the Council’s attention to ‘the difficulty it envisages in respecting the deadline imposed
in Article 5(3) of this text in which to obtain an opinion from the Committee established in Article 10 and
subsequently to adopt rules on the use of colour photographs’.

(1) OJ L 194, 18.7.2001.

(2002/C 172 E/233)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0603/02

by Manuel Pérez Álvarez (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Closure of Lear group factory (Lleida province, Spain)

(6 March 2002)

The factory of the multinational group Lear in Cervera (Lleida/Lérida province, Spain) appears certain to
close in the near future.

This factory has been paying the lowest possible wages for the metal sector. 80 % of its workers are
women. Given above-average profit levels in excess of EUR 300 million over the last seven years, the
decision to cease operations may be considered a clear case of a measure that is not and cannot be justified
in social terms.

What measures are envisaged to ensure that decisions of this nature are not made in the face of the rights
of workers and, more generally, of the less-favoured strata and of regions and communities for whom
establishments such as this are the main source of employment?

What measures have been decided in this specific case?

Answer given by Ms Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(23 April 2002)

Several Community Directives lay down procedures for informing and consulting workers’ representatives
that may be applicable to closures of enterprises: Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 on the
approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies (1) and Council
Directive 94/45/EC of 22 September 1994 on the establishment of a European Works Council or a
procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the
purposes of informing and consulting employees (2). Directive 2002/14/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 11 March 2002 establishing a general framework for informing and consulting
employees in the European Community / Joint declaration of the European Parliament, the Council and
the Commission on employee representation (3) will supplement the Community provisions in this area.

However, the material requirements that enterprises need to meet when they decide to close down
production units are not covered by any Community instrument. Nevertheless, on 15 January 2002 the
Commission decided to launch a Community-level consultation of the social partners on anticipating and
managing change: a dynamic approach to the social aspects of corporate restructuring. In so doing, the
Commission is inviting the social partners to engage in a dialogue on this important topic, including the
question of strengthening the adaptability and employability of workers, especially as far as vocational
retraining is concerned.

(1) OJ L 225, 12.8.1998.
(2) OJ L 254, 30.9.1994.
(3) OJ L 80, 23.3.2002.