WRITTEN QUESTION E-2195/03 by Michael Cashman (PSE) to the Council. Counterfeiting and piracy.
Date: 2003-07-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: area of freedom, security and justice, customs cooperation, customs regulations, illicit trade, industrial counterfeiting, intellectual property, single market

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/15

The toll is obviously contrary to EU competition rules. What steps will the Commission take to find a
solution to this problem?

(2004/C 84 E/0016)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2243/03

by Christoph Konrad (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Distortions of competition by German goods-vehicle toll

(30 June 2003)

Does the Commission consider that

1.
to be
introduced at the end of August in Germany is in fact commensurate with the necessary volume of
investment in road building?

for the goods-vehicle toll

the basis of assessment

2.
How does the Commission react to the distortions of competition in the German transport industry
(and other branches of the economy) that will result from the significant increase in transport costs caused
by this new goods-vehicle toll?

Does the Commission stand by its rejection of the Federal Government’s intention to offset the
3.
impact of the goods-vehicle toll on German transport undertakings by way of a credit against the
petroleum tax?

Does the Commission anticipate any problems with an immediate reduction in the motor-vehicle tax

4.
levied on goods-vehicles in Germany to the minimum EU tax rate?

Does the Commission expect the new toll arrangements to put non-German transport undertakings

5.
transiting through Germany at a disadvantage?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2141/03 and P-2243/03
given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(6 August 2003)

Germany has notified to the Commission its intention to introduce a toll reimbursement system
accompanied by the introduction of a mileage-based motorway user charge for heavy goods vehicles.
In this context, the attention of the Honourable Members is drawn to the decision of the Commission of
23 July 2003 to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty.

(2004/C 84 E/0017)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2195/03

by Michael Cashman (PSE) to the Council

(2 July 2003)

Subject: Counterfeiting and piracy

It has been forecast that counterfeiting and piracy will cost EU companies with international activities
between EUR 400 and EUR 800 million per annum in the internal market and EUR 2 000 million outside
it. In addition, Member States suffer enormous loss of revenue from the smuggling of excised goods. Can
the Council give assurances that cooperation to deal with this problem will be discussed at forthcoming
meetings of Justice and Home Affairs and Internal Market Ministers?

C 84 E/16

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Reply

(8 March 2004)

In February 2003, the Council and the European Parliament had before them a proposal for a Directive on
measures and procedures to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights (2003/0024(COD)).

This proposal is currently being examined in detail within the Council bodies pending the opinion of the
European Parliament at first reading (scheduled for November 2003). The Council can ensure you that it
will continue to accord this proposal the priority it deserves.

In this context, it should be noted that on 22 July 2003 the Council also adopted a Regulation concerning
customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights and the measures
to be taken against goods found to have infringed such rights (1). The Regulation forms part of the more
general framework of cooperation and mutual assistance between customs administrations at Community
level.

(1) OJ L 196, 2.8.2003, p. 7.

(2004/C 84 E/0018)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2210/03

by Claude Moraes (PSE) to the Council

(2 July 2003)

Subject: Progress on asylum in Thessaloniki

Will the Council please give its view on the progress made on the issue of asylum at the Thessaloniki
Summit, particularly with regard to UK proposals to create ‘zones of protection’ to process asylum
applications on or close to the borders of refugee producing countries?

(2004/C 84 E/0019)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2258/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(8 July 2003)

Subject: Keeping new refugees away from EU territory by building reception camps in the future Member

States or further afield

1.
Can the Council confirm that, even before the decision was taken on 20 June 2003 at Porto Carras
(near Thessaloniki) to permit some EU Member States by way of an experiment to accommodate asylum
seekers outside EU territory, work had already begun to connect electricity, water mains ssand drainage to
13 barracks at the former army base in the village of Trstenik, Croatia?

2.
Does the Council consider that the housing in Trstenik will remain confined to the temporary
accommodation of 800 asylum seekers wishing to settle in the UK, and will the people taken there
exclusively comprise people from Balkan countries applying for asylum at UK ports or airports?

Do similar agreements exist, concluded by the EU or its individual Member States,

3.
for the
construction of refugee camps in Russia, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Albania, and are there
plans for camps further away from EU territory in a ring around the refugees’ countries of origin in South-
Western and North-Eastern Africa?

4.
Is the intention to keep the refugees permanently outside EU territory? Does that mean that these
reception camps will be moved, together with their occupants, when Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia join
the EU?