WRITTEN QUESTION E-0635/02 by Giuseppe Pisicchio (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Benefits for frontier regions.
Date: 2002-03-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU migration policy, EU programme, EU visa policy, Italy, Southern Europe, coastal region, cooperation policy, illegal migration, migration control, return migration

26.9.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 229 E/111

Why did the Council not urge the Commission to include the fishing industry in this initiative?

Will the Spanish Council Presidency ask the Commission to submit an initiative rounding off that already
presented and containing proposals for the training and recruitment of workers in the fishing industry?

(1) COM(2001) 188 final.

Reply

(27 June 2002)

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that the communication which the Commission
submitted in April 2001 on the training and recruitment of seafarers is part of an overall strategy to
increase the competitiveness of Community shipping, the need for which was stressed by the Council in its
Resolution of 24 March 1997 (1). That strategy focuses on shipping as a mode of transport and not on the
fishing industry.

The distinction made between maritime transport and fisheries is common to the great majority of
national, international and Community legislative instruments. In the various Conventions adopted by the
International Labour Organisation (ILO), as well as in the Convention on Standards of Training,
(STCW) adopted within the International Maritime
Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers
Organisation (IMO) framework, the term ‘seafarers’ applies exclusively to the crew of vessels used for
maritime transport and not to fishermen.

The same approach was in fact followed by the European Parliament and the Council when they adopted
Directive 2001/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the minimum
level of training of seafarers.

That instrument applies to: the seafarers […] serving on board seagoing ships flying the flag of a Member
State, with the exception of:

; warships […],

; fishing vessels,

; pleasure yachts […],

; wooden ships of primitive build. (Article 2 ; scope).

Notwithstanding this general approach, as the Honourable Member is certainly aware, Council Regulation
No 2792/1999 on Community structural assistance in the fisheries sector already foresees support for
training of workers in the fishing industry.
In Article 11, support for ‘professional requalification or
training’ is made part of the Community support for small-scale coastal fishing. Article 15(3)(k) allows for
support to producer organisations for ‘access to training, particularly in quality, and organisation of
transmission of know-how on board vessels and on land’, and finally in Article 17(1) ‘training measures’
are also mentioned.

(1) OJ C 109, 8.4.1997, p. 1.

(2002/C 229 E/127)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0635/02

by Giuseppe Pisicchio (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 March 2002)

Subject: Benefits for frontier regions

The general public is now fully aware of the major difficulties affecting certain coastal regions of Europe
(particularly in southern Italy) on account of the constant arrivals of illegal immigrants by boat.

C 229 E/112

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

This has many implications. The human aspect is certainly the most important, although social and
economic ones are significant too, on account of the highly detrimental effect which they have on the
inhabitants of coastal regions (who are called upon to display additional solidarity ; which they do
willingly) and on local economies, which are required to make an extraordinary effort on Europe’s behalf.

Coastal regions in southern Italy and southern Europe are quite unable to escape the role assigned to them
by geography as the EU’s first outpost.

In view of these facts, does the Commission not think that it should declare Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and the
other affected regions of Europe to be ‘frontier regions’ and grant them the benefits associated with such a
status which will help relieve those regions’ current difficulties, since their voluntary workers, economies,
welfare services and reception centres are at the moment under an impossible burden?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(26 April 2002)

The fight against illegal immigration is one of the key elements of the Union’s comprehensive common
policy on asylum and immigration.

As the Honourable Member has stated, there are some border regions in Europe that are particularly
affected by illegal immigration because of their geographical location. The differing impact on the regions
is yet a further argument for the adoption, in a spirit of cooperation between all the Member States, of a
genuine common policy to combat
this phenomenon, but without undermining compliance with
international obligations or respect for human rights.

To that end, the Commission Communication to the Council and Parliament on a common policy on
illegal immigration (1) proposed a raft of measures based on mutual trust between the Member States. The
Commission welcomes the quick adoption by the Council of an action plan in this area on the basis of the
communication.

The Commission intends to follow this up as soon as possible with appropriate initiatives on visa policy
and repatriation policy in the form of a Green Paper, on which there will be wide-ranging consultations, as
well as checks at external borders for which it will propose a common strategy in a forthcoming
communication. The aim of all these measures is to significantly reduce illegal immigration in Europe.

Measures are planned under the Interreg III cross-border cooperation programmes involving Italy’s external
illegal
in particular the Italy/Albania and Italy/Slovenia programmes to regulate and control
borders,
migratory flows and to enhance the structures where immigrants are first received as well as the social
integration schemes for workers and women who wish to get out of
illegal networks or escape
exploitation. The Commission would remind the Honourable Member that it is for the Italian regional
authorities, which are responsible for managing and monitoring the programmes cofinanced by the
European Regional Development Fund, both to select and implement the projects to be cofinanced.

(1) COM(2001) 672 final.

(2002/C 229 E/128)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0636/02

by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council

(4 March 2002)

Subject: Transparency

Will the Council please comment on the proposal concerning transparency and openness in the EU
institutions entitled: ‘Transparency and openness in the EU institutions’, as proposed by SEAP, the Society
of European Affairs Professionals?