WRITTEN QUESTION E-3198/02 by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Problems in Belgium in communicating in a language other than Flemish.
Date: 2002-11-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, Flanders (Belgium), administrative procedure, competence of the Member States, linguistic discrimination, public administration

C 110 E/182

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.5.2003

On oil sales in Italy, the figures for the last marketing year (2001/02) should be noted. Given domestic
olive oil production of 562 000 tonnes, domestic consumption of 735 000 tonnes and exports of 280 000
tonnes, Italian traders had to import 440 000 tonnes to meet demand on the internal and external markets.
Of this 400 000 tonnes came from Spain. The other 40 000 tonnes came from Tunisia and had to meet
the quality requirements set in the Community rules.

Under Regulation (EC) No 2815/98 and from 1 November 2002 Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1019/
2002 ‘Made in Italy’ may appear on the label only if the oil comes 75 % to 100 % from olives harvested in
Italy. If it comes less than 100 % from Italian olives this must be explicitly stated.

The Commission firmly believes that the arrangement in force for indicating origin on labelling is the only
way of guaranteeing to the consumer the quality of the olive oil supplied by the producer.

(1) Commission Regulation (EC) No 2815/98 of 22 December 1998 concerning marketing standards for olive oil,

OJ L 349, 24.12.1998.

(2003/C 110 E/201)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3198/02

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 November 2002)

Subject: Problems in Belgium in communicating in a language other than Flemish

According to complaints which have also been reported in the Belgian press, French-speaking Belgian
nationals as well as other EU nationals who have contact with the authorities of the Flemish region of the
country do not receive essential official documents in any language other than Flemish. The same applies
to legal proceedings before the courts of the same region (e.g. Antwerp and elsewhere) in which the
accused (cid:1) according to the same complaints (cid:1) are required to speak Flemish and only Flemish.

There have also been angry protests against the fact that in the Flemish region of Belgium, account
information and official notices are exclusively in Flemish, despite Belgium being a country with more than
one official language and hosting thousands of foreign nationals who work for the numerous international
organisations and embassies based there.

Is this practice employed by the Flemish authorities consistent with Community law? Does it infringe the
right of citizens who are either nationals of that country or have lived for long periods in Belgium to
communicate in a language with which they are familiar? How could the Commission intervene to
facilitate communication by non-Flemish speaking Belgian nationals and EU nationals who do not know
Flemish but live in areas in which Flemish is the official language? What are the Commission’s views on
the difficulties of communication encountered particularly by anyone taking a case to the judicial
authorities in the Flemish region of Belgium?

Answer given by Ms Reding on behalf of the Commission

(12 December 2002)

The Commission does not have the authority to express an opinion on the language regime in the Member
States. This area is the exclusive responsibility of the Member States.