WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1762/97 by Jan MULDER to the Commission. Imports of flowers from Latin American countries
C 21/92 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 22. 1. 98 Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission (7 July 1997) The Commission is now looking into the matter raised by the Honorable Member. A tax on dish aerials could be illegal if it was found to contravene Article 59 of the EC Treaty by restricting the freedom to provide services, or Article 2 of Directive 89/552/EEC (1), the Television without frontiersí Directive, which establishes the principle of freedom of reception and retransmission of television broadcasts from other Member States. (1) OJ L 298, 17. 10. 1989. (98/C 21/192) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1762/97 by Jan Mulder (ELDR) to the Commission (27 May 1997) Subject: Imports of flowers from Latin American countries On 29 April I received the Commissionís answer to my question E-0901/97 (1) of 24 April 1997. The Commission states that it does not yet have the results of a large-scale survey of the functioning of the SGP scheme with the countries of the Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market and Panama. The special arrangements with Colombia have been in force since 13 November 1990. My supplementary questions are as follows: 1. Why is it that in late April 1997 the Commission had still not evaluated the scheme involving Colombia which has been in force since 13 November 1990, particularly as the United States appear to have the requisite information to enable them to evaluate the arrangements and to draw far-reaching conclusions? 2. When does the Commission think it will be able to evaluate these arrangements, and in particular inform Parliament of whether the trading concessions satisfy the original objectives? (1) OJ C 373, 9. 12. 1997. Answer given by Mr Mar ·n on behalf of the Commission (20 June 1997) 1. The Commission keeps a close watch on trends in exports to the Community from the Andean and Central American countries accorded special arrangements under the scheme of generalised tariff preferences. Studies of the impact of those arrangements on Andean trade were carried out prior to the scheme’s extension to include Venezuela from 1 January 1995. Via monitoring arrangements set up jointly with the countries concerned, the Commission also keeps abreast of their efforts to combat drug trafficking and progress made in terms of improved legislation, reductions in the area cultivated to produce drugs, and law enforcement. On the basis of the data available to it, the Commission judged the impact of the special arrangements to be satisfactory, and said so in its report to the Generalised Preferences Committee in December 1995, pursuant to Article 18 of Council Regulation (EC) No 3281/94 of 19 December 1994 (1). Nonetheless, the Commission felt that a more detailed examination of the impact of the special arrangements, including their long-term socio-economic effects, was needed. It was to that comprehensive, up-to-date study that the Commission referred in its answer to the Honourable Member’s written question E-0901/97. It is not aware that the US has the information needed to evaluate the effects of the special arrangements granted by the Community. The Commission expects to receive the preliminary conclusions of the study in question in July and to 2. present its final report to the Generalised Preferences Committee when it reconvenes in October. (1) OJ L 348, 31. 12. 1994