WRITTEN QUESTION E-3913/03 by Ole Krarup (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Oil extraction agreement: granting of authorisations.
Date: 2003-12-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Denmark, North Sea, consortium, extraction of oil, service concession

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/673

(2004/C 78 E/0716)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3913/03

by Ole Krarup (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(17 December 2003)

Subject: Oil extraction agreement: granting of authorisations

Does the Commission consider that the Danish government’s agreement with A.P. Møller and the Dansk
Undergrund Consortium on the conditions for oil extraction over the next 40 years in the North Sea meets
the requirement that authorisations ‘shall be granted on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory
principles’ (Article 13 of Directive 94/22/EC (1) on the conditions for granting and using authorisations for
the prospection, exploration and production of hydrocarbons)? If so,
is it aware of any examples of
comparable concession conditions?

(1) OJ L 164, 30.6.1994, p. 3.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(6 February 2004)

The Commission has asked the Member State concerned for information regarding the facts raised to by
the Honourable Member. It will inform him of its findings.

(2004/C 78 E/0717)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3915/03

by Marco Pannella (NI), Maurizio Turco (NI), Marco Cappato (NI),
Gianfranco Dell’Alba (NI), Benedetto Della Vedova (NI)
and Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(17 December 2003)

Subject: Forced repatriation to Vietnam of Montagnard refugees by the Cambodian government and the

repeated violation of the UN Convention on Refugees

According to a report by Radio Free Asia, in mid-November 2003 the Cambodian authorities forcibly
repatriated the last eleven of sixty Montagnard refugees in Cambodia, handing them over to the
Vietnamese authorities when they left the malaria-infected forest last July after Cambodian fishermen were
forced to reveal their whereabouts to the Cambodian authorities.

All sixty Montagnards belong to the Jarai tribe and the provincial police in Ratanakiri have confirmed their
deportation although they have not said exactly when this took place and the inhabitants of the village of
O Lvea have confirmed that the last refugees were rounded up and arrested by the police in the forest in
Koh Nhek district between Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri provinces. No information concerning the fate of the
sixty refugees has been provided either by the Cambodian authorities or by the Vietnamese authorities and
reports from the local population confirm that all sixty had contracted malaria after living for months on a
diet of tubers and bamboo, as the police had prevented local fishermen from providing them with any
assistance since October. The Cambodian police authorities have issued contradictory statements
concerning the presence of Montagnard refugees on their territory, failing to provide them with any
assistance but handing them over to the Vietnamese authorities in exchange for food and money, as
recently documented by various independent sources.

Son Chhay, a Cambodian Member of Parliament from the Sam Rainsy party, and even the King of
Cambodia have pointed out in recent months that the government of Cambodia is repeatedly violating the
Refugee Convention, under which it has a duty to provide assistance to refugees on its territory.