WRITTEN QUESTION E-0056/03 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. CFP reform and the legal situation of the Portuguese and Spanish fleets.
Date: 2003-01-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, Portugal, Spain, common fisheries policy, equal treatment, fishing rights, transitional period (EU)

C 192 E/152

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

14.8.2003

The Commission does not collect data concerning the prevalence of the conditions mentioned. The
Community Public Health Programme 2003-2008 is intended to set in place a health monitoring system
which will collect information on a series of health data.

Directive 2001/83/EC (4) lays down the obligation that the applicant provides in the application for a
marketing authorisation for a medicinal product all information, which is relevant to the evaluation of the
product, whether favourable or unfavourable. In particular, all relevant details shall be given of any
incomplete or abandoned pharmacotoxicological or clinical test or trial. Where an applicant submits
incomplete or falsified applications, the application has to be rejected. In addition, Member States have to
establish the necessary mechanisms to ensure that these obligations are respected in practice.

(1) OJ L 183, 12.7.2002.
(2) OJ C 126 E, 28.5.2002.
(3)

(see e.g. http://www.emea.eu.int/ for the European Medicines Evaluation Agency,
http://heads.medagencies.org/ for links to the national agencies and http://www.fda.gov/ for the USA agency).
(4) Directive 2001/83/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating

to medicinal products for human use (cid:1) OJ L 311, 28.11.2001.

(2003/C 192 E/187)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0056/03

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

(22 January 2003)

Subject: CFP reform and the legal situation of the Portuguese and Spanish fleets

the end of

At
the long transitional period granted when Portugal and Spain joined the European
Community, in what areas of the CFP reform which has been approved by the Council are the Portuguese
and Spanish fleets granted the same fishing and catch entitlements as are granted to the other EU Member
States, in particular entitlements identical to those of the countries which were Member States at the time
when the CFP was drawn up?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(25 February 2003)

In accordance with Article 211 of the EC Treaty, the Commission is the Community institution which acts
as the guardian of Community law. This entails ensuring application of the Treaty and compliance with
the general principles of Community law. These include the principle of equal treatment originating in the
principle of non-discrimination, particularly as regards nationality, deriving from the provisions of the
Treaties (see, for example, Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union and Articles 12 and 13 of the
EC Treaty).

It should also be noted that, in applying the provisions of the Treaty, the Court of Justice has always
regarded them as expressing the general principle of equal treatment, which is a fundamental principle of
the Community legal system (1).

The Commission’s obligation to ensure compliance with this principle clearly includes when it is exercising
its power of initiative. The proposal for a Council Regulation on the management of the fishing effort
relating to certain Community fishing areas and resources and modifying Regulationg (EEC) No 2847/93 (2)
constitutes a recent example of applying the equal treatment principle under the common fisheries policy,
the aim of the proposal being to ensure equal operating conditions and to eliminate all discrimination
between Member States on the basis of nationality.

(1) See judgments in Joined Cases 124/76 and 20/77 ([1977] ECR 1795) and Case 237/83 ([1984] ECR 3153).
(2) COM(2002) 739 final.