WRITTEN QUESTION E-0121/04 by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission. Integrated waste management in the municipality of Casale sul Sile (Treviso).
Date: 2004-01-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: application of EU law, award of contract, consortium, local government, public contract, restriction on competition, service concession, waste management

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/307

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.

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3.4.2004

The Commission will examine the new legislative framework as established by the above-mentioned laws
and decide accordingly what action should be taken with regard to the infringement proceedings against
Italy.

(1) OJ C 222 E, 18.9.2003.

(2004/C 84 E/0356)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0123/04

by Dorette Corbey (PSE) and Jan Wiersma (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Containers of arsenic pentoxide at sea

(26 January 2004)

On 21 December 2003 in very heavy seas to the north-west of the Dutch island of Texel, the cargo ship
lost three containers
Andinet, which was sailing under an Ethiopian flag from Antwerp to Bremen,
(carrying a total of 630 drums) and 63 loose drums of wood pesticide consisting of 24 % arsenic
pentoxide, 34 % chromium trioxide and 14 % copper dioxide. In addition, the content of about 50 drums
of the toxic substance (5 000 litres) was washed into the sea during the storm.

1.

Does the Commission agree that:

(cid:1) ships with hazardous substances on board should be forbidden to put out to sea in storms,

(cid:1) it should be forbidden to transport containers of hazardous substances on deck,

(cid:1) every container of hazardous materials should be equipped with a transmitter for ease of traceability?

2. What steps will the Commission take within the EU and the IMO to ensure that the prohibitions
mentioned in paragraph 1 are introduced, as well as the requirement that containers carrying hazardous
substances should be equipped with a transmitter?

Does the Commission take the view that existing controls at the time of loading are stringent

3.
enough, or should the rules on stowing cargo be reviewed?

4. Who is responsible for the recovery of cargo lost overboard, who is liable for any damage to the
environment or biodiversity, and does the Commission take the view that the question of liability is
sufficiently well regulated?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(9 March 2004)

Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a
Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system (1)
lays down measures in the event of
exceptionally bad weather, including the possibility for the competent authority to recommend or prohibit
either a particular ship or ships in general from entering or leaving a port.

In general, the transport below deck of containers of hazardous products, particularly explosives, presents
a greater risk to the safety of the ship than storage on deck.

With regard to the obligation to equip containers of hazardous substances with a transmitter, as part of
the 5th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the Commission launched
the Safe InterModal Transport Across the Globe (Simtag) research project, the objectives of which include
the development of viable technology for tracing and identifying cargoes which pose a risk to the
environment, and the intelligent tracking of containers.

On the basis of the results of the Simtag project, the Commission will examine appropriate measures in
the framework of its right of initiative.