WRITTEN QUESTION E-3166/02 by Emma Bonino (NI) to the Commission. The Joola disaster.
Date: 2002-11-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, Senegal, The Gambia, help for victims, maritime transport, terms for aid, transport accident

3.7.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 155 E/105

(2003/C 155 E/114)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3166/02

by Emma Bonino (NI) to the Commission

(6 November 2002)

Subject: The Joola disaster

On Thursday, 26 September 2002 the Joola ferry, which provided a service between Ziguinchor and
Dakar, calling at the island of Karabane, sank off the coast of Gambia. Of the 1 034 people on the ferry,
only 64 have so far been rescued, making this one of the worst disasters in civil navigation, with about
1 000 people lost.

The government of Senegal made great efforts to save the shipwrecked passengers, repatriate those who
survived and assist the families of the victims and those still unaccounted for, but the extent of the disaster
has of course had a devastating effect on the whole country.

What measures has the Commission taken to come to the aid of the victims’ families and the Government
thus demonstrating the European Union’s practical solidarity with one of the countries
of Senegal,
associated with the Union under the Cotonou Convention?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(15 January 2003)

The Commission does not have the necessary instruments to provide aid to the families of disaster victims.

With regard to emergency humanitarian aid, the Commission is not in a position to respond to such a
situation within the framework of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/96 of 20 June 1996, concerning
humanitarian aid (1). The Regulation is primarily aimed at saving and preserving lives during emergencies
and in the immediate aftermath of disasters. The sort of assistance which the families of the victims of the
Joola ferry incident require in this instance is not covered by the Regulation.

(1) OJ L 163, 2.7.1996.

(2003/C 155 E/115)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3170/02

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

(6 November 2002)

Subject: EU control and oversight of nuclear loads travelling over Community territory

Since various EU Member States still engage in nuclear production at a number of centres and reprocessing
plants, transportation of uranium and radioactive waste still goes on on EU territory, in a number of
Member States. Industrial contracts concluded with third countries such as Japan and Russia have the same
effect.

The extremely hazardous nature of these products has always posed a permanent and terrifying threat of
traffic accidents or incidents arising from defective equipment, affecting areas within a very wide
circumference of the routes taken by the loads. Law-abiding demonstrations by citizens living near some of
these routes, or by anti-nuclear activists, are met with police repression and expulsion, the only response
known to the authorities in some Member States to this vigilance on the part of their citizens.

The threat of a new dimension of ‘hyperterrorism’ that was born on 11 September in the United States
now presents a new danger, according to security and nuclear experts, that regular transportation of
nuclear materials outside the well guarded production, processing and storage areas could become a target
for attacks or hijackings by extremist organisations.