WRITTEN QUESTION E-0112/04 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission. Dolphins.
Date: 2004-01-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: by-catch, common fisheries policy, fishing regulations, marine mammal, protection of animal life

C 84 E/306

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

In 2003 the Commission set up an Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings in order to ensure
proper implementation of the recommendations of the Brussels Declaration on Preventing and Combating
Trafficking in Human Beings. The Commission intends to issue a communication including an action plan
further to the findings of the Experts Group. This might include a wide range of measures such as
awareness raising campaigns, under EU programmes like AGIS and Daphne.

On 22 July 2002 the Council adopted the decision establishing a framework programme on police and
judicial cooperation in criminal matters (AGIS) (1). AGIS was established for the period from 2003 to 2007
with a financial reference amount of EUR 65 million. The programme supports projects in areas such as
the cooperation between law enforcement authorities or other public or private organisations involved in
preventing and fighting crime, organised or otherwise. This includes projects focusing on police or judicial
cooperation in the area of trafficking in human beings or the sexual exploitation of children. Another
important area covered by the programme is the effective protection of the interests of victims, for
example victims of human trafficking, in criminal proceedings.

Further funding means are available under the Daphne Programme to combat violence against children,
young people and women. This programme provided EUR 20 million for 2000-2003. The Daphne II
programme will run from 2004 until 2008, with a budget of EUR 50 million which corresponds to a
doubling of the annual appropriation.

In the context of the Community Support Framework for the Czech Republic and in accordance with the
Commission’s Further Indicative Guidelines for the Candidate Countries for the 2004-2006 programming,
documents promoting a culture of ‘crime prevention’ may be co-financed,
in particular by bringing
together all parties involved in the prevention of crime at national, regional or local level (national judicial
and law enforcement authorities, entrepreneurs, trade unions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
representatives of EU Institutions etc.). Such activities shall be co-ordinated with those in the area of justice
and home affairs co-financed under the Transition Facility for Institution Building, or other national or
international instruments or programmes, in order to ensure synergy and avoid any undue duplication of
activities or funding.

(1) OJ L 203, 1.8.2002.

(2004/C 84 E/0354)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0112/04

by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission

(22 January 2004)

Subject: Dolphins

Is the Commission aware that over the weekend of 10/11 January, 15 dolphins were washed up on the
coast of south west England in my constituency?

Whilst I am aware of and support the changes made by Commissioner Fischler to support and protect
dolphins and other cetaceans from being killed as by-catch, does the Commission know of similar kinds of
large-scale deaths elsewhere? Has the Commission considered whether further and stronger measures may
be necessary?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(25 February 2004)

The Commission is well aware of the problem of dead dolphins being washed ashore on the beaches of
Member States, in particular in winter periods in the South of the United Kingdom, and of the fact that
these deaths are due in part to incidental catch in fishing activities. However, the Commission is not aware
of all detailed figures on stranding events.

The Commission considers that the first step to address the problem of cetacean by-catch in fisheries, and
the issue of cetacean conservation in more general terms, should be the adoption and full implementation

3.4.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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of the measures already proposed by the Commission to the Council (1), as well as a proper and full
implementation of the ‘Habitats Directive’ requirements by the Member States (2). Further measures could
only be considered after this first step has been taken.

(1) COM(2003) 451 final.
(2) Council Directive 92/43/EEC, OJ L 206, 22.7.1992; Directive as last amended by Directive 97/62/CE of 27 October

1997 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, OJ L 305, 8.11.1997.

(2004/C 84 E/0355)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0121/04

by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission

(26 January 2004)

Subject: Integrated waste management in the municipality of Casale sul Sile (Treviso)

By virtue of Decision No 25 of 22 October 2002, and without issuing a call for tenders, the municipality
of Casale sul Sile (Treviso) became a member of the Priula inter-municipal consortium, which is the body
responsible for the TV2 basin created in 1987 to facilitate the comprehensive management of urban waste
for all participating municipalities. The consortium has subcontracted the waste removal operations to the
firm Contarina SpA, in which it is the majority shareholder.

The decision specifies the following requirements for membership: acquisition, as a minimum associative
share, of 0,1 of the consortium’s stock, calculated on the basis of the consortium’s net assets and
equivalent to around EUR 30 000; acceptance of the provisions of the consortium’s memorandum and
articles of association and subsequent amendments thereto; delegation to the consortium of the urban
waste management service and the application and collection of the fees arising therefrom.

The text of the decision also specifies that the management of the service shall be ‘direct, in that the
consortium emanates from the associate bodies’ and that ‘the (municipal) administration did not have
sufficient time at its disposal to launch a European-type invitation to tender and at the same time was not
prepared to prolong the contract of the company that had been managing the service’. In an article
journal, the mayor stated that launching a European tendering procedure
published in the municipal
meant admitting the successful company ‘solely on the basis of economic criteria, with difficulties as
regards direct intervention in the organisation or quality of the service’.

Does the Commission not consider the procedure described above to contravene the principles of
transparency and competition laid down in Community provisions and Community law, since the
contracting authority has assigned the complete management of a public service to a contracting
consortium that it has selected directly, and of which it has moreover become a member, thereby also
creating a conflict of interests?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(4 March 2004)

The municipality of Casale sul Sile’s awarding of waste management services to which the Honourable
Member refers is an instance of the more general problem of Italian legislation governing the forms of
management and awarding of local public services.

As the Commission previously explained in its reply to the Honourable Member’s Written Question
No 555/03 (1), this legislation is currently the subject of infringement proceedings under Article 226 of the
EC Treaty. In the course of this procedure, the Commission sent Italy a letter of formal notice in 2000 and
a supplementary letter of formal notice in 2002.

Laws No 326 of 24 November 2003 and No 350 of 24 December 2003 recently reformed the local public
services sector in Italy.