WRITTEN QUESTION E-1936/03 by Anne Jensen (ELDR) to the Commission. Port safety.
Date: 2003-06-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: United States, common ports policy, container, cooperation agreement (EU), customs cooperation, international security, maritime safety, port administration, restriction on competition, terrorism

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/479

airports on the territory of a Member State with a fully coordinated airport, the rules on slot allocation
(Article 9 § 1(a) and § 3 of the Regulation) give Member States the right to reserve slots only under certain
conditions. Accordingly, slots for such routes could be reserved, only if the routes in question were
operated in 1993, when the slot Regulation entered into force, and if the Member State concerned had
communicated the list of the routes benefiting from this regime.

(1) OJ L 240, 24.8.1992.
(2) OJ L 14, 22.1.1993.

(2004/C 84 E/0555)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1886/03

by Emmanouil Bakopoulos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(27 May 2003)

Subject: Iraqi cultural heritage

According to press reports, the Baghdad National Museum and the Mosul Museum have been primary
targets for looting. To date, over 170 000 ancient exhibits have been stolen.

What steps will the Commission take to safeguard Iraq’s cultural heritage and to locate the stolen exhibits?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(20 June 2003)

The Commission is deeply concerned by the looting and the destruction of a large number of
archaeological treasures in the National Archaeological Museum of Baghdad. The Commission supports
the views expressed by Unesco in the call issued on 17 April 2003, which deplored the extensive damages
to the cultural heritage of Iraq, and recommended measures to stop the traffic of cultural objects exported
illicitly.

The Commission is confident that all measures will be taken by the coalition forces, as present the
responsible authority in Iraq, so that further destruction is avoided. In this respect, the Commission is
preparing a draft regulation to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483, which
repeals the sanctions imposed on Iraq trade. The Commission is considering the possibility of introducing
a ban on the import of cultural objects from Iraq, according to the relevant article of Resolution 1483.

(2004/C 84 E/0556)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1936/03

by Anne Jensen (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 June 2003)

Subject: Port safety

The USA lays down requirements concerning the level of safety in European ports from which ships
depart for American ports. This seems in actual fact to have meant the USA concluding agreements with,
and giving priority to, selected European ports which it considers ‘safe’. At the same time, the USA refuses
to have anything to do with other ports which are considered ‘unsafe’. This gives some European ports an
unfair competitive advantage over others.

What action does the Commission intend to take to remedy this problem? For example, will it propose
legislation making European ports acceptable to the USA? What would be the main features of such
legislation? When does it expect to take an initiative in this area?

C 84 E/480

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(24 July 2003)

The European Union has been fully informed about
initiatives to require a
strengthening of controls and anti-terrorist measures in ports exporting to the United States, and the
distortions of competition between ports to which these measures could give rise.

the US authorities’

The USA has selected 20 ‘mega ports’, mainly in Europe, not on the basis of the port security measures in
place, but to cover as much container traffic as possible, in particular 98 % of containers shipped between
the EU and the USA.

The second stage of the introduction of the US Container Security Initiative (CSI) is intended to cover other
ports. The choice of these ports may be guided by considerations relating to port security, but the US
Customs Service has also indicated that, in this second stage, ports would be chosen on the basis of
strategic criteria such as the main shipping routes to the Middle East and/or Africa.

The Community’s reply must therefore meet two requirements: it must be global so that it can be part of a
world-wide approach, and it must meet EU internal market requirements, in particular by guaranteeing
equality of treatment of all EU exporters.

In order to preserve equality of treatment throughout the customs union, the Commission at the beginning
of the year sent letters of formal notice to the Member States which signed ‘declarations of intent’ relating
to the introduction of the Container Security Initiative.

At the same time, it proposed to the Member States a cooperation plan with the US authorities to establish
an agreement to replace the provisions of the declarations of intent which are incompatible with the
customs union and the internal market.

On 18 March 2003, the Council approved negotiating directives for the Commission to negotiate, in areas
covered by Community competence, a widening of the scope of the customs cooperation agreement
concluded between the Community and the USA in 1997 in order to guarantee better coordination of
security checks on moving goods.

Furthermore, on 2 May 2003 the Commission adopted a Communication on improving the security of
shipping, and a proposal for a Regulation on enhancing ship and port facility security (1).

The Commission plans to adopt other legislative initiatives on port security, the security of the intermodal
transport chain and a revision of the Community Customs Code.

(1) COM(2003) 229 final.

(2004/C 84 E/0557)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2007/03

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(11 June 2003)

Subject: Vietnam: continuing imprisonment of the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do

The 75-year-old Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, the second-highest authority in the Unified Buddhist
Church of Vietnam, is still being held in prison, although he should have been released on Sunday, 1 June
2003 after serving the full two-year ‘administrative detention’ sentence (Ref.: 3208/QD-UB) which was
handed down on him on 31 May on the basis of a ‘Decision’ by the Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Court.
According to the local court, this new sentence constituted a reactivation of the five-year sentence of
‘preliminary imprisonment’ to which the religious leader had been sentenced in August 1995, although he
had been released under a general amnesty in September 1998. As justification for its ‘Decision’, the Ho Chi
Minh City’s People’s Court claimed that it was acting in order to prevent Thich Quang Do from pursuing
activities exerting a malign influence on politics and public order. Such ‘reactivation’ of a sentence is not
only arbitrary and against the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Vietnam, it also
constitutes a manifest breach of Vietnamese law in that the amnesty from which Ven. Thich Quang Do