WRITTEN QUESTION P-0465/03 by Philip Bradbourn (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Classification of territorial units for statistics.
Date: 2003-02-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Gibraltar, regional statistics, statistical method, statistical nomenclature

26.2.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 51 E/25

(cid:1) call on the Greek Government to implement a policy of more effective checks on movements of

migrants;

(cid:1) take all the measures envisaged in the Treaties to prevent continued laxness on the part of the Greek
authorities from helping to cause dramatic incidents with serious repercussions for other Member
States of the European Union?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(27 March 2003)

The Commission continuously calls on Member States to co-operate more closely in the fight against
immigration and the management of the common external borders. Following a Commission’s
illegal
immigration of 15 November 2001 (1), the Council
Communication on a common policy on illegal
adopted on 28 February 2002 an action plan on illegal immigration (2). Moreover, the Council adopted on
13 June 2002 a plan for the management of the external borders of the Member States of the Union,
which is also based on a Commission’s Communication on the subject of 7 May 2002 (3).

The aforementioned plans are currently being implemented with legislative and operational measures.
For instance, Greece leads currently a joint operation of Member States aiming to control and reduce illegal
immigration by sea in the Eastern Mediterranean (operation ‘Triton’).

The Commission has currently no knowledge on an insufficient performance of Greek border controls,
which would not be in compliance with the Schengen standards. On the contrary, the Commission has
is fully engaged in the fight against illegal
every reason to consider that Greece,
immigration. As already set out in the reply to the Written Question P-122/03 by Mr Bösch (4), the
Commission takes part in the evaluation of the proper implementation of the Schengen ‘acquis’ and would
take the appropriate steps in the case that a Member State violates the common provisions on the control
of the external borders.

like all its partners,

(1) COM(2001) 672 final.
(2) OJ C 142, 14.6.2002.
(3) COM(2002) 233 final.
(4) OJ C 161 E, 10.7.2003, p. 179.

(2004/C 51 E/026)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0465/03

by Philip Bradbourn (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(17 February 2003)

Subject: Classification of territorial units for statistics

In view of the publication of the Common Position on the establishment of a common classification for
territorial units for statistics and the annex attached thereto, could the Commission please clarify the
position of Gibraltar in regard to this classification and if not so classified explain why not?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(14 March 2003)

The NUTS is only applicable to the ‘economic territory’ of
the Member States as defined for the
implementation of the regulation on the Gross National Product at Market prices and the European System
of Accounts (reference: citation 12 of the regulation (cid:1) Commission Decision 91/450/EEC, Euratom of

C 51 E/26

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

26.2.2004

26 July 1991 defining the territory of Member States for the purpose of the implementation of Article 1 of
Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom on the harmonisation of the compilation of gross national product
at market prices (1)).

Gibraltar is not part of the economic territory within the terms of the implementing rules for this decision
and so is not included in the NUTS classification.

(1) OJ L 240, 29.8.1991.

(2004/C 51 E/027)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0471/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(20 February 2003)

Subject: Serbian and Albanian initiatives to speed up a permanent solution to the administration of Kosovo

1.
Is the Council aware that the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic wants to convene a conference
in the summer of 2003 to discuss the future of Kosovo, which has no longer been under Serbian control
since 1999, and that after the withdrawal of half the NATO troops from Kosovo by the end of 2003 he
wants the Serbian army to return to the area, partly because the preamble to the constitution of
4 February 2003 for the new federation of Serbia and Montenegro says that Kosovo should be part of the
territory of Serbia?

Is the Council also aware that 42 members of

2.
the Kosovon Parliament have called for the
independence of Kosovo to be declared in February 2003, partly in order to give the inhabitants better
protection against the feared return of domination by Serbia of the predominantly Albanian-speaking
population?

3.
Does the Council see the Serbian Prime Minister’s claim as a means of securing the support of
domestic public opinion after the elimination of ex-president Kostunica of former Yugoslavia who has
twice failed to be elected president of Serbia, as compensation for giving up rights to the much smaller
state of Montenegro, or as a bargaining chip to allow Serbia subsequently to take over Republika Srpska,
also inhabited by Serbs, in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina?

4. What does the Council consider can be done in the immediate future to allay the concerns felt on
both sides as far as possible and to find solutions that are seen by both the Albanians and Serbs as steps
towards good neighbourly relations, such as the extension of Albanian autonomy and the strengthening of
cooperation between the Serbs now effectively spread over three states, Serbia, Republika Srpska and
Kosovo, north of Mitrovica/Kosovska Mitrovica?

Source: De Volkskrant newspaper, 5 and 8 February 2003.

(2004/C 51 E/028)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0472/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(20 February 2003)

Subject: Circumstances, procedures and timescale for settling the future of Kosovo before possible EU

accession

How long does the Council think it will be possible to maintain the current status of Kosovo as a de
1.
facto UN and EU protectorate with, on the one hand, an external Administrator and, on the other, its own
parliament, government and president, joint use of the currency of 12 EU Member States, but without its
own foreign relations and with formal recognition of the area as part of a State which in practice no
longer exercises any control over it and the authority of which is totally rejected by the vast majority of
the population?