WRITTEN QUESTION E-2779/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Increase in the volume of mail and freight transported by rail in Germany and measures to promote a similar increase in other Member States.
Date: 2003-09-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Germany, carriage of goods, combined transport, common transport policy, postal service, rail transport

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/425

Once the insurance or reinsurance intermediary has been registered in his home Member State he may
conduct business in the entire Community under the freedom of establishment and the free provision of
services.

The Directive shall be applied by Member States as of 15 January 2005.

(1) OJ L 9, 15.1.2003.

(2004/C 78 E/0445)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2779/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(17 September 2003)

Subject: Increase in the volume of mail and freight transported by rail

in Germany and measures to

promote a similar increase in other Member States

1.
Is the Commission aware that in various Member States the carriage of large quantities of mail over
long distances by rail has been or is being terminated, that special mail trains are being scrapped and
replaced by trucks, but that in Germany Deutsche Post, which hitherto has sent mail by rail only between
Hamburg and Munich, now intends to use the same method of transport between Cologne and Berlin and
on other routes, partly because tolls are being introduced for the use of motorways by trucks?

Is the Commission also aware that

2.
in some Member States national railway companies have
contracted out complementary road haulage operations (such as those formerly performed in the
Netherlands by Van Gend en Loos) to other companies, but that in Germany Deutsche Bahn now owns the
road haulage companies Stinnes Logistics and Schenker, which coordinate their operations with DB-cargo,
while the latter provides the rail freight services and, after having taken over this transport in the
Netherlands and Denmark, will in future be operating under the name Railion?

3.
Are these developments in Germany a promising contribution to the Commission’s efforts to restore
rail’s share of the freight market, which has fallen sharply in the recent past, and to permanently increase
it?

4. What will the Commission do to encourage emulation in other Member States of the German
examples, insofar as they strengthen the position of the railways in the transportation of mail and freight?
What obstacles still exist to such emulation and how will they be eliminated?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(4 November 2003)

The Commission monitors closely the situation of the railway market as prescribed by Directive 2001/12/
EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on
the development of the Community’s railways (1). It welcomes the success stories like the one mentioned
by the Honourable Member, as it regrets decisions of railway undertakings to discontinue services such as
international passenger services or postal services. Recent success stories in freight are due to major
changes which occurred in the approach by the railway undertakings of the freight market, now acting
with a view of the global transport chain and as a business. This is the reason why the Commission
pursues a policy of modernising the regulatory framework to enable railway undertakings to provide
competitive national and international rail freight services. The Commission is satisfied to see this policy to
bear fruit in some Member States and particularly in those having already created new competitive
conditions like Germany and the Netherlands.

It seems to be a logical consequence of current demand patterns and customer requirements that railway
undertakings develop European business strategies that integrate logistical services in the transport offer to
the customers. It is their primary responsibility.

C 78 E/426

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

The Commission may only support this development through the establishment of a common European
regulatory framework for non-discriminatory market access, safety rules and interoperability requirements.
Additionally, Community funds contribute to the development of rail infrastructure needed to provide
competitive and customer-oriented rail services, particularly on the trans-European rail network.

(1) OJ L 75, 15.3.2001.

(2004/C 78 E/0446)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2780/03

by António Campos (PSE) to the Commission

(11 September 2003)

Subject: Forest fires in the Union

This year, parts of the Union were hit by a wave of forest fires;
catastrophic.

in Portugal these were positively

Given that the Commission spends considerable sums on forest protection plans and forestry measures,

And has the Community information system on forest fires at its disposal.

Can the Commission answer the following questions:

1. What three species were most affected, and what were the surface areas devastated by forest fires, in

each of the Member States in the last 10 years?

2. What percentage do these species account for in each Member State’s woodlands as a whole?

3. What is the size of the areas covered by these more vulnerable species which have been devastated in

the last 10 years?

4. What measures were taken, as part of the management of the EAGGF Guarantee, to prevent the
funding of the more vulnerable species, and what amount of money went into the more fire-resistant
species?

5.

If the Commission has a forest tree flammability scale in graded form, would it provide me with the
details?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(8 October 2003)

Under Article 2 of Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 (1) the Member States classified their territory by degree
of fire risk. Some 60 million hectares of forest and other wooded areas (60 % private, 40 % public) in six
Member States (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain) were classed as high and medium-risk
areas. This accounted for 40 % of the total for the fifteen Member States.

Analysis of the Community forest fire information system data for the last 12 years shows that on average
1 % of the forests of the Member States’ risk zones has been affected by fire each year but that in some
parts of Greece, southern Italy and central and eastern Spain more than 3 % of the forest area has burned.

Analysis of the same data also shows that three big areas have had very large numbers of fires: the north-
western Iberian Peninsula (north half of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias), a Franco-Italian triangle comprising
south-eastern France, Corsica, Liguria and Tuscany, and south-western Italy (Sardinia, Sicily, Basilicata,
Calabria).