WRITTEN QUESTION E-0785/04 by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission. Deportation of parents of Irish/EU citizens.
Date: 2004-03-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Convention on Human Rights, Ireland, child of migrant, competence of the Member States, illegal migration, nationality, removal

C 84 E/880

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(28 April 2004)

The EU has developed comprehensive legislation for water policy, the Water Framework Directive (1).

This Directive:

(cid:1) addresses all waters (rivers, lakes, groundwater and coastal waters);

(cid:1) addresses all sources of human impact on water (including ‘inter alia’ the generation of electricity by

thermic power plants or hydroelectric power plants);

(cid:1) sets the legally binding objective of good status for all waters to be achieved/maintained by 2015 as a

rule, linked to a non-deterioration clause;

(cid:1) requires full consideration of specially protected areas (e.g. nature protection areas, drinking water

abstraction areas, bathing areas);

(cid:1) submits all relevant impacts on waters (e.g. abstractions, impoundments, river diversions as well as
discharges) to a permit procedure. These controls/permits shall be periodically reviewed and where
necessary updated.

Implementation of the Directive is following a step-by-step approach, with legal transposition into national
legislation to be ensured by 22 December 2003 (new Member States: 1 May 2004), first analysis of
pressures and impacts by 22 December 2004, followed by development of river basin management plans
under full public participation, to be finalised by 22 December 2009.

The Commission considers that implementation of this Directive not only will ensure good quality (‘good
status’) of waters, but also a sound and predictable basis for technical, financial and political decisions, thus
providing for a level playing field whilst respecting the different hydrological and environmental conditions
in different regions of the Union as well as specially protected areas. This is also reflected in the binding
principle that the environmental objectives of ‘good status’ has to be derived from the conditions of
pristine waters in the respective region, thus requiring a tailor-made objective based on clear provisions.
Whilst the Directive is already setting an ambitious environmental objective, the EC Treaty stipulates that
Member States may introduce or maintain even more stringent protection measures (2).

Implementation of the Directive has been complemented by comprehensive efforts of the Commission,
Member States (including new Member States), non-governmental organisations and stakeholders in the
frame of a common implementation strategy since 2001.

The Water Framework Directive and its provisions outlined above will apply to the new Member States to
join the EU on 1 May 2004 as it does for current Member States; there are no transition periods.

(1) Directive 2000/60/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for

Community action in the field of water policy, OJ L 327, 22.12.2000.

(2) Article 176 of the EC Treaty, consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union and of the Treaty establishing

the European Community, OJ C 325, 24.12.2002.

(2004/C 84 E/0974)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0785/04

by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission

(11 March 2004)

Subject: Deportation of parents of Irish/EU citizens

Is the Commission aware that 11 000 parents of children born in Ireland are currently at risk of being
forced to leave Ireland? This is despite the fact that the children concerned were born in Ireland and are
therefore Irish/EU citizens. The policy of allowing the deportation of parents of Irish/EU child citizens may
mean that these children could be forced to leave Ireland and accompany their parents to live in countries
where their rights, set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, might not be protected.

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/881

Has the Commission been in contact with the Irish Government concerning the rights of Irish/EU citizens
whose parents face deportation? Does the Commission agree that this policy discriminates against those
child citizens whose parents are third-country nationals?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(7 April 2004)

The situation described by the Honourable Member involves children born in Ireland to parents who are
nationals of non-Member States. Like anyone born in Ireland, these children have acquired Irish nationality
by ius soli. On the question of the expulsion of nationals, Article 3(1) of Protocol No 4 to the European
Convention on Human Rights states that ‘No one shall be expelled, by means either of an individual or of
a collective measure, from the territory of the State of which he is a national’.

However, in so far as these children have not exercised the right to free movement by leaving Ireland to
reside in another Member State, it is not possible to apply the principles of Community law in this case.
Consequently, Irish law (cid:1) even on expulsion (cid:1) will apply to the situation of children born in Ireland to
nationals of non-Member States, and the Commission is not in a position to answer the questions raised by
the Honourable Member.

(2004/C 84 E/0975)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0791/04

by Alexander de Roo (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 March 2004)

Subject: Encroachments on Ria Formosa Nature Reserve (Natura 2000)

In 1999, the Portuguese government designated the Ria Formosa Nature Reserve (to the south of Faro, in
the Algarve) as a special protection zone in accordance with Article 4 of the Birds Directive (79/409/
EEC (1)). Under pressure from the advancing tourism industry, Ria Formosa seems fated to become a pawn
in the game of project developers who (cid:1) according to semi-official plans (cid:1) wish to develop a total of 21
golf courses and 9 marinas, in addition to 10 building sites intended for flats and villas (Source: Expresso,
11 August 2001).

In recent years, some 25 species of brooding migratory birds have wholly or partly disappeared in the
area, including the kingfisher, night heron, red-legged partridge, red-crested pochard and purple heron.
Birds of prey have also declined dramatically, because rabbits, hares and hedgehogs have already
disappeared.

Woodland has been (unlawfully) cleared, and some forest fires appear not to have ignited spontaneously.
The Ria Formosa Reserve (a good 23 000 hectares) seems unlikely to be given protection by the
authorities, and is being neglected. Unique sand-dune vegetation in marshland areas is dying out owing to
pollution from sewerage effluent
from streams discharging into the lagoons. The polluted water is
increasing the risk of malaria. The Portuguese Office of Statistics (INE) reports that 12 persons died of
malaria in Portugal in 2001 (The News, 14 February 2004).

Does the European Commission agree that this unique nature reserve is being sacrificed to economic
activities that conflict with the special protection intended to apply to Ria Formosa?

the European Commission draw the Portuguese authorities’ attention to the inappropriate

Will
development taking place in and around the Ria Formosa nature reserve area?

(1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979, p. 1.