WRITTEN QUESTION E-0653/02 by Mario Borghezio (NI) to the Council. Need for the EU to guarantee Mr Arafat full liberty.
Date: 2002-03-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Palestine, head of State, restriction of liberty, the EU's international role

C 229 E/116

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

(2002/C 229 E/132)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0653/02

by Mario Borghezio (NI) to the Council

(19 March 2002)

Subject: Need for the EU to guarantee Mr Arafat full liberty

Following the arrest by the Palestinian National Authority of the person responsible for the assassination of
the Israeli minister Mr Zeevi,
it was
universally assumed by world public opinion that the ‘confinement’ of Mr Arafat would come to an end.

in the wake of strong pressures from the Israeli government,

By contrast, the highly controversial decision by the Jerusalem authorities to continue confining Mr Arafat
within the restricted territory of Ramallah cannot possibly be seen as a contribution to détente or to peace.
It also prevents Mr Arafat from undertaking, on a basis of full personal liberty, the activities of monitoring
the Palestinian terrorist fringes and engaging in political mediation, which are considered in all quarters to
be essential if there is to be peace.

Does the Council not believe that there is an urgent need to intervene so as to ensure that the Palestinian
leader has full freedom of movement to enable him pursue the activities of monitoring and prevention of
terrorism, given also that such freedom is indissociable from the Palestinian Authority’s demand for the
right to exercise full sovereignty over even a comparatively small area of Palestine?

Reply

(27 June 2002)

The Council shares the concern of the Honourable Member. It, like the European Council meeting in
Barcelona, has made quite clear its wish to see President Arafat enjoy full freedom of movement. It is a
position that the Council has also made clear in its contacts with the Government of Israel, through the
Presidency and High Representative.

(2002/C 229 E/133)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0654/02

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

(19 March 2002)

Subject: Languages threatened with disappearance at world level: non-official languages of the EU Member

States = the Galician language in the Spanish state

The ‘Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing’, recently issued by Unesco to coincide
with International Mother Language Day, declares that half of the world’s 6000 languages are facing the
risk of dying out. This atlas confirms that 3000 languages are in serious danger of dying out in numerous
parts of the world. For this reason, Unesco’s Director-General, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, has declared that
recognition of the equal status of all languages is the only response that can reflect the values of the
‘human condition’. The Atlas identifies a number of different ‘crisis areas’ located in all the regions of the
globe, among them Asia (including China), the Pacific islands, Australia, Africa, North America (including
the US), the Arctic regions and Central and South America. It also highlights the grave predicament of
numerous European languages, not only outside but also within the EU. Within the Union, the Atlas takes
the view that a real threat also exists to those languages which are subordinated to and objectively
dominated by the official language of their Member State, even where those languages have legal co-official
status within a specific geographical area.

This is the case with the Galician language, spoken in the Spanish state, which the Atlas classifies as an
endangered language. Galician is the national
language of Galicia and is understood by 97 % of the
Galician population and spoken by 86 %. Despite this, the pressure of the official language of the Spanish
state in public administration, business, the media and the church, the fact that Spanish is the only
language which all are required to learn by law, and the failure of the Galician regional authorities to meet
their moral obligation to devise proactive and effective political and educational policies for the protection