WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3906/97 by Cristiana MUSCARDINI to the Commission. Structural Funds for Tuscany and breach of anti- seismic legislation
C 187/82 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 16. 6. 98 1. Will the Commission therefore call on the Italian Government to make Malpensa feasible to use before it takes any decision to increase the volume of traffic at that airport? 2. Will it take steps to ensure that flights from Milan Linate Airport to other Union destinations, especially Brussels, are not discontinued, given that flights from Milan to Brussels (the capital of Europe) are just as important as those from Milan to Rome (the capital of Italy)? Joint answer to Written Questions E-3905/97 and E-3956/97 given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (29 January 1998) 1. Council Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes (1) allows a Member State to regulate the distribution of traffic between the airports within an airport system, provided that such regulation is without discrimination on grounds of the nationality or identity of the air carrier, and otherwise respects the general principles of Community law. The Commission, acting at the request of a Member State or on its own initiative, examines such national traffic distribution rules and decides whether the Member State may continue to apply them. Furthermore, under the Commissionís decision of 15 July 1997 authorising the State aid granted to Alitalia, the Italian authorities undertook not to give Alitalia priority over other Community companies. This principle also applies to the application or amendment of rules for the distribution of traffic within the same airport system. The Commission is in contact with both the Italian authorities and airlines operating out of Linate, to ensure that the criteria for the Milan traffic distribution rules and the envisaged date of their implementation comply with the requirements of Community law described above. 2. On the wider question of access to Malpensa, both the Commission and the European Investment Bank have consistently stressed the need for adequate access to Malpensa 2000. Assurances were given by the Italian authorities about the timely completion of the remaining essential road access works, followed by progressive inauguration of rail access facilities, at a meeting between those authorities, Commission representatives, the airport management, and other interested parties in October 1997. It was also reported at that meeting that the matter of taxi operations and fares to and from Malpensa has been taken up by the Lombardy regional government, and that legislation is pending on the whole question of public transport access. (1) OJ 240, 24. 8. 1992. (98/C 187/129) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3906/97 by Cristiana Muscardini (NI) to the Commission (11 December 1997) Subject: Structural Funds for Tuscany and breach of anti-seismic legislation Tuscany is widely believed to be a region which receives generous Community funding. Nevertheless, there are major failures in the efforts to combat unemployment and stimulate industrial development › two of the objectives receiving funding. One example of this is a factory (for making high-precision machinery) on which construction began 14 years ago but which is still not able to begin production because the Regional Civil Engineer has not certified it as being in breach of anti-seismic legislation. For the past 14 years, political and bureaucratic posturing by the Regional President, who refuses to order the firm constructing the factory to comply with the legislation, and the Mayor of the Commune of Pisa, who has declared the factory a danger to the public and to private individuals, has made it impossible to begin production and hire labour