WRITTEN QUESTION E-3542/03 by Caroline Lucas (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. GMOs.
Date: 2003-11-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: cataloguing, maize, seed, transgenic plant

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/579

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(20 January 2004)

Directives 89/48/EEC (1) and 92/51/EEC (2) are not based on the coordination of training arrangements or
conditions governing access to the professions covered by them. In accordance with Articles 149 and 150
of the EC Treaty, each Member State remains free to regulate (or not) a given profession and to specify the
level and content of the training required in order to be eligible to carry on this profession in that Member
State. These directives could not therefore put in place a system of automatic recognition of diplomas.

These directives lay down that the host Member State is entitled to ask that a migrant take an aptitude test
or complete an adaptation period not exceeding three years when the education and training he/she has
received covers matters which differ substantially from those covered by the diploma required in the host
Member State. The host Member State must, however, allow the migrant to choose between the aptitude
test and the adaptation period. The directives lay down that the adaptation period shall be the subject of
an assessment, and that the detailed rules governing the adaptation period, its assessment and the status of
the migrant undergoing this period shall be determined by the competent authorities in the host Member
State in accordance with Community law.

The Commission has no knowledge of problems concerning the recognition of qualifications held by social
service graduates in France. It would ask the Honourable Member to forward any complaints she has
received on this matter so that it can examine them and take appropriate action.

(1) Council Directive 89/48/EEC of 21 December 1988 on a general system for the recognition of higher-education
diplomas awarded on completion of professional education and training of at least three years’ duration, OJ L 19,
24.1.1989.

(2) Council Directive 92/51/EEC of 18 June 1992 on a second general system for the recognition of professional

education and training to supplement Directive 89/48/EEC, OJ L 209, 24.7.1992.

(2004/C 78 E/0612)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3542/03

by Caroline Lucas (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(28 November 2003)

Subject: GMOs

Commission document (1) (cid:1) Information note concerning forthcoming decisions on GMOs and GM food,
feed and seed (cid:1) (Brussels, 13.10.2003), notes on page 5, paragraph 4, that: ‘23 GM maize varieties are
inscribed in national catalogues (French, Dutch and Spanish) and are awaiting inscription into the
Common Catalogue of agricultural plant species (Directive 2002/53/EC)’.

Would the Commission therefore please state:

1.

2.

the name of each variety and which GM line they are each derived from?

the national seed list on which each is currently inscribed?

(1) SEC(2003) 1131.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(20 January 2004)

A table listing the information requested concerning the 23 genetically modified (GM) maize varieties
inscribed in national catalogues awaiting inscription into the Common Catalogue of agricultural plant
species, as mentioned in Commission document (1),
is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to
Parliament’s Secretariat.

(1) SEC(2003) 1131.