WRITTEN QUESTION E-0524/03 by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. WTO negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)..
Date: 2003-02-24
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: World Trade Organisation, international negotiations, liberalisation of trade, public service, services contract, trade agreement

6.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 58 E/19

(2004/C 58 E/020)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0484/03

by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 February 2003)

Subject: Export of sheep from accession countries to the European Union

How many (i) lambs aged six months or less and (ii) adult sheep were exported from each accession
country to each European Member State in (a) 2000 and (b) 2001?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(21 March 2003)

The Honourable Member will find enclosed the information that is available from the Commission. A table
which is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat gives the export of lambs
up to one year old. Unfortunately, the statistics do not provide information on lambs aged six months or
less. Additionally, the Commission provides also the statistics on live goats.

Only four countries are mentioned. There is no export from the other Accession Countries to the
Community.

(2004/C 58 E/021)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0524/03

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(24 February 2003)

Subject: WTO negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

The General Agreement on Trade in Services is currently being negotiated within the WTO, following on
from the conclusions of the WTO ministerial meeting in Doha. The ‘offer’ phase, as it is termed, is due to
end on 31 March 2003.

1. What specific proposals have been submitted, both by EU Member States to non-member countries
and by non-member countries to EU Member States?

2.
How does the Commission view a new advance in the liberalisation of services (bearing in mind the
specific proposals being negotiated), not least as regards its economic, social, environmental, and political
impact, especially in terms of curbs on national sovereignty and the growing impoverishment of
democracy?

In the light of the demands being put forward by political, workers’ social, environmental, and

3.
development cooperation organisations, what would be the Commission’s attitude to:

(cid:1) suspension of the negotiations and a moratorium on the processes under way to liberalise services?

(cid:1) serious, exhaustive public debate to gauge the consequences of the liberalisation policies implemented
to date and the impact of the current rules and the new GATS proposals in, for example, restricting
the freedom of countries endeavouring to provide or develop free, universal public sectors and
services?

4.
How does the Commission view exclusion of public services (including education, health, energy,
water, transport, communications, and sanitation) from the scope of the GATS negotiations, as is being
called for by political, workers’, social, environmental, and development cooperation organisations?

C 58 E/20

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(27 March 2003)

The Honourable Member is referred to the statement made by the Commission during the debate on trade
in services within the framework of the WTO, including cultural diversity, at Parliament’s part-session in
March this year.

(2004/C 58 E/022)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0549/03

by Baroness Sarah Ludford (ELDR) to the Commission

(26 February 2003)

Subject: Minority rights in Vietnam

As the Commission is aware, officials in Vietnam continue to stifle free expression, and to systematically
suppress and control the activities of religious groups, including ethnic minority Christians in the northern
and central highlands, members of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and Hoa Hao
Buddhists in the south. Members of these faiths and their leaders are frequently detained by local
authorities and are subjected to beatings and pressure to renounce their religion and cease religious
gatherings.

Apart
from taking every available opportunity to raise its concerns with Vietnamese officials and
politicians about such continued human rights abuses, what pressure can the Commission exert on
Vietnam’s authorities to ensure the situation improves?

Does the continued and systematic persecution of religious minorities not infringe the Human Rights
Article of the Framework Cooperation Agreement signed between the EC and Vietnam in July 1995? If it
does, what action will the Commission take?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(14 May 2003)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its reply to Written Question E-454/03 by
Mr Graham Watson (1), concerning the persecution of Christians in Vietnam.

As far as the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam is concerned the Honourable Member may know that
the situation has recently evolved. Most notably, its Supreme Patriarch, Venerable Thich Huyen Qang, has
been received by Vietnam’s Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. The Commission is aware that the recent events
do not automatically entail a change with regard to the legal status of the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam, which remains banned in the country. The Commission will continue to monitor closely the
developments, but considers that these latest gestures of the Government of Vietnam are an encouraging
step towards enhanced tolerance of freedom of religion.

The Union’s policy towards Vietnam, and indeed to all countries, is to encourage and support continued
progress on human rights and democratisation, and to raise concerns where any abuses or a deterioration
in the situation is observed.

The Community-Vietnam Co-operation Agreement, which was signed in 1995, states in its first Article
that respect for human rights and democratic principles is the basis of our co-operation. This reference
constitutes the enabling framework for the Human Rights dialogue of
the Commission with the
Government of Vietnam, for instance in the context of Joint Commission meetings. The Commission,
together with the Member States represented in Vietnam,
therefore monitors closely human rights
developments in Vietnam as part of the policy of the Union to encourage and support the continued
commitment of
in the field of human rights.
The Commission also participates with the Member States in the regular dialogue with and in all
démarches to the Government of Vietnam on human rights issues.

the Government of Vietnam to make progress