WRITTEN QUESTION E-0434/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Sterilisation of young Roma women in Slovakia on the basis of misleading information or without their consent.
Date: 2003-02-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Roma, Slovakia, care of mothers and infants, ethnic cleansing, physician, professional ethics, protection of minorities, right to physical integrity, sterilisation

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Official Journal of the European Union

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8.4.2004

Has the Commission:

1. Made representations to the Honduran Government?

2. Other plans, to try to improve the dreadful situation?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(28 February 2003)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Members to its joint reply to questions E-0086/03 by
Mr Roger Helmer and question E-0097/03 by Mr Philip Whitehead on the same subject (1).

(1) See page 5.

(2004/C 88 E/0012)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0434/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 February 2003)

Subject: Sterilisation of young Roma women in Slovakia on the basis of misleading information or without

their consent

1.
Is the Commission aware of the testimony given by two Slovakian women, Magda Kandráèová and
Sonja Pokutová, on the Netherlands television programme Network (TV1, 4 February 2003, www.net-
werk.tv) that sterilisation or hysterectomies are performed on young mothers from the Roma community
who have complications during childbirth and that this happens either without their knowledge or after
they are suddenly told during the delivery that there is a medical need for intervention, which amounts to
exacting their ill-informed consent?

Is there any truth in the statements by the director of the hospital in Spisˇska Nová Ves saying that it
2.
is the Roma women themselves who want to be separated from other Slovakian women in hospital and
that Slovakian law authorises hysterectomies to be performed after a second caesarean section because this
is good for the women concerned?

3.
Is the Commission aware of reports, confirmed by the Poradna human rights organisation, that
interviews with 230 Roma women showed that 140 of them had been misled in this way and that
unwanted operations of this kind occur particularly in the case of young women who have had their first
or second child and that it can therefore be assumed that the measure is primarily designed to keep the
numbers of Roma, a group disliked by many other nationals, as low as possible?

Is this a case of practices developed during the 1938-1945 and 1948-1989 dictatorships living on in

4.
the medical profession despite there being no legal basis for them?

5. What is the Commission doing to ensure that the Slovakian judicial system prosecutes those who
break the law and that the necessary changes to the law, if any, are adopted in Slovakia to put an end to
forced sterilisations as soon as possible and to ensure that such practices are never carried out again after
Slovakia joins the EU?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(13 March 2003)

The Commission is aware of the allegations, recently published in a report of the ‘Center for Reproductive
Rights’, a non-governmental organisation based in New York, and which were later reflected in other
media statements, that Roma women are being sterilised without their consent or with coerced consent by

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Official Journal of the European Union

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doctors in Eastern Slovakia. The report raised also other human rights violations such as discriminatory
access to health-care resources and treatment.

Forced or coerced sterilisation of women is punishable under Slovak legislation.

The Member of the Commission responsible for Enlargement has immediately addressed this issue in a
letter to Slovak Prime Minister Dzurinda, underlining that these allegations are a matter of serious concern
and if proved to be true, would constitute a serious breach of human rights. He has asked the Slovak
authorities to vigorously carry out the necessary investigations, remedy possible discriminatory measures
and keep the Commission informed about the proceedings.

The Commission has been informed that Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Csaky instructed the competent
authorities to launch the necessary investigations.

(2004/C 88 E/0013)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0569/03

by Freddy Blak (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 February 2003)

Subject: Refund of registration fee in respect of exports from Denmark

In 2002, the Danish Government introduced a system for refunding registration fees on exported motor
vehicles.

§ 7b, paragraph 3 of the relevant law, No 977 of 2 December 2002 on registration fees for motor vehicles,
states that 15 % of the amount of the fee prescribed in paragraph 2 shall be deducted.

However, § 1 of the same proclamation states that a fee is payable in respect of motor vehicles to be
registered under the Road Traffic Act.

This means in practice that 85 % of the registration fee is refunded when a motor vehicle is exported but
that, if it is re-imported, the full fee is payable, making a difference of 15 %.

Will the Commission say whether this system, which is akin to customs duties, is consistent with the
provisions on freedom of movement for goods across borders in the EU (e.g. Articles 23 and 25 of the
Treaty)?

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(6 August 2003)

In the framework of the Communication of the Commission to the Council and the Parliament ‘Taxation
of passenger cars in the European Union (cid:1) options for action at national and Community level’, issued on
9 September 2002 (1),
the Commission urged Member States to introduce a refund system for the
registration tax where a used car is delivered on sale to another Member State or exported to a third
country. In the same document it was also suggested that the way of calculating the residual registration
tax to be refunded should be the same as in the case of import of used cars from other Member States.

In July 2002, Denmark introduced in its legislation a refund system for the registration tax in respect of
vehicles leaving Danish territory. Under this system, the registration tax to be reimbursed is calculated in
exactly the same way as when a car is initially registered in Denmark. In this regard, the tax on new
vehicles is charged on the basis of the retail price including customs duty, VAT and profit margin, but
excluding the tax itself. Used vehicles are taxed in the same way, although the actual retail price is
estimated in a valuation procedure where the vehicles are compared to similar vehicles on the Danish
market.