WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3510/97 by Leonie van BLADEL to the Council. Discrimination against the elderly and the disabled by European local authorities
C 158/136 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 25. 5. 98 2. Is the Council prepared to ask the Commission to draw up guidelines to ensure that private individuals are never given the authority to violate the privacy of citizens on the public highway, irrespective of whether or not they do so by order of the local authorities? Is the Council prepared to ask the Commission to draw up guidelines to ensure that local authorities never 3. allow private individuals, such as the hotel staff referred to above, to control who can use the public highway? 4. Does the Council realize that the proliferation of cameras operated and monitored by private individuals by order of local authorities is a serious violation of the privacy of European citizens and is the Council prepared to take all possible steps to call a halt to such practices by asking the Commission to draft guidelines on the matter? Answer (20 January 1998) It should be pointed out to the Honourable Member that the maintenance of law and order in the territory of the Member States of the European Union falls within the exclusive competence of the authorities of each of those States. The Honourable Member will therefore appreciate that the Council is not empowered to adopt a position on a subject which does not come within the powers allocated to it under the Treaties. (98/C 158/178) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3510/97 by Leonie van Bladel (UPE) to the Council (14 November 1997) Subject: Discrimination against the elderly and the disabled by European local authorities In the Hofkwartier district of The Hague, all traffic on the corner of Molenstraat and Prinsestraat, including 1. pedestrians, is recorded on video cameras by the local authority in connection with the closure of a section of the city to motorized traffic. The video pictures are also monitored by private individuals, namely the staff of the Park Hotel in The Hague, who allow only motor vehicles selected by them through the pedestrian zone between 11. 30 a. m. and 5. 30 p. m. This means that only clients of the Park Hotel and the Paleis Hotel can get taxis. Does the Council not consider that this is blatant discrimination by the local authorities against citizens in general and the elderly and disabled who frequent establishments other than the Park Hotel and Paleis Hotel in particular? 2. Is the Council prepared to ask the Commission to draw up guidelines to ensure that private individuals are never given the authority to violate the mobility of citizens in general and the elderly and disabled in particular on the public highway as described above? Answer (26 January 1998) The Honourable Member will understand that the Council is not in a position to be acquainted with the particular facts that he refers to in his question, which appear to concern a local situation from which it is difficult to draw any general conclusions for the territory of the European Union as a whole. With specific reference to the traffic problems experienced by disabled people, the Council regards this as a matter of great importance. The Honourable Memberís attention is drawn to two texts in this connection: the Resolution on equality of opportunity for people with disabilities (20 December 1996, OJ C 12/97) and the Recommendation on a parking card for people with disabilities, which the Council should be adopting in the near future