WRITTEN QUESTION P-0409/04 by Carlos Coelho (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Rights inherent in European citizenship.
Date: 2004-02-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European citizenship, European election, Malta, residence, right to vote

C 88 E/696

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

Justice in connection with this incorrect application,

guaranteeing prior consultation, and given that the Commission has brought the relevant charges before
the EU Court of
in the case of a regulation
implemented in processing the Ebro water transfer as part of the Spanish National Hydrological Plan, will
the Commission tell me to what extent the Spanish Government’s failure to meet the requirements could
affect the implementation of the National Hydrological Plan, since Spanish Environment Ministry sources
have stated that ‘even if the court were to say that we have to change this aspect of the law, this would not
invalidate the decisions taken’?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(23 March 2004)

As the Honourable Member rightly states, the Commission recently decided to bring an action against
Spain before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, in accordance with Article 226 of the EC
Treaty, for incorrect transposition into Spanish law of certain provisions of Council Directive 85/337/EEC
of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of
the effects of certain public and private projects on the
environment (1), amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 (2).

However, it should be noted that this decision was taken within the context of infringement proceedings
initiated by the Commission to examine the conformity of Spanish legislation transposing Directive 97/11/
EC. These are general proceedings unrelated to any specific case, such as the one mentioned by the
Honourable Member. The decision stems from complaints that the transitional arrangements provided for
in Directive 97/11/CE and the obligations arising from Articles 3 and 9 were not being met and had not
been clearly incorporated into Spanish law.

The infringement proceedings do not necessarily mean that the Directive on environmental
impact
assessment is still being applied incorrectly in Spain. Any consequences for specific projects would have to
be determined through a case-by-case examination of the procedure followed.

(1) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.
(2) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997.

(2004/C 88 E/0715)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0409/04

by Carlos Coelho (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 February 2004)

Subject: Rights inherent in European citizenship

The Treaty of Amsterdam further rounded out the definition of European citizenship, by adding that it did
not replace but supplement national citizenship; at the same time, the Treaty consolidated the rights
arising form European citizenship.

Consequently, with the Charter of Fundamental Rights promulgated in Nice in 2000, a single text brought
together all the personal, civic and political rights, as well as the economic and social rights, which
European citizens are guaranteed to enjoy.

Amongst these is the right to vote or stand in elections to the EP, or in local elections in one’s country of
residence within the EU.

I was therefore extremely surprised to learn, from a letter sent by the International Secretary of the Maltese
Nationalist Party, Dr Jason Azzopardi, of the worrying fact that hundreds of Maltese citizens are having
their rights infringed, by being refused the right of voting in the forthcoming June elections to the
European Parliament, because they are temporarily residing outside their own country, for purposes of
work, training or study.

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/697

Is the Commission aware of this situation? And how does it view behaviour of this kind, which seems to
be a clear violation of a guaranteed right of all European citizens?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(15 March 2004)

I would refer the Honourable Member to the Commission’s answer to written question E-0118/04 from
Ms Frassoni and Mr Cohn-Bendit (1).

(1) See page 682.

(2004/C 88 E/0716)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0427/04

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(17 February 2004)

Subject: Residence of nationals in another Member State

Will the Commission please state the number of nationals of each Member State resident in each of the
other Member States for each year for the last ten years for which figures are available?

it also state the number of non-EU nationals in each Member State in each year for ten years,

Will
indicating, if possible, the number of US nationals?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(16 March 2004)

The tables which are sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat indicate the
number of non-national citizens resident in the Member States for the years 1994 to 2003. Where
possible, the number of non-nationals is disaggregated by the citizenships of the individual Member States,
by the total number of non-EU citizens and by the number of American citizens. To maximise the data
series, the table for 1994 includes figures for Austria, Finland and Sweden although these countries were
not then members of the EU.

The figures in these tables are based on the data currently available to Eurostat. The data are supplied to
Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes in response to an annual data request relating to migration
flows and migrant stocks.

For the reasons explained below, only a partial response is possible to these questions. Statistics on non-
national population are not available for all Member States and for all years. Where figures are available,
some caution is required in their interpretation. Different data sources and definitions of residence are used
across Europe, and this can affect the comparability of statistics for different Member States.

The table for 2001 is the most complete. The 2001 round of population censuses provides additional data
that can be used to verify figures from other data sources or to provide information where no other data
are available. Statistics on non-national populations in Luxembourg and Austria are based on the census
and so are only available for 2001. Similarly, the statistics for France are only available for 1999, the year
of the last census in France.