WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3587/97 by Nikitas KAKLAMANIS to the Commission. Free issue of public road transport licences to non-Greek hauliers
C 174/80 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 8. 6. 98 In this connection, can the Commission say which organizations carrying out public nature protection tasks › e. g. the protection of threatened or sick animals › are covered by the Directive on the freedom of access to information on the environment (90/313/EEC)? Where the Commission does regard an organization as covered by the directive, does this apply irrespective of the organizationís legal status? (1) OJ L 158, 23. 6. 1990, p. 56. Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (6 January 1998) Article 6 of Council Directive 90/313/EEC on the freedom of access to information on the environment (1) stipulates that Member States must take the necessary measures to ensure that information relating to the environment held by bodies with public responsibilities for the environment and under the control of public authorities is made available on the same conditions as those set out in the Directive on information on the environment held by public authorities, either by an intermediary of the competent public authority or directly by the bodies themselves. The Directive sets out two conditions which the above-mentioned bodies must abide by in order to be covered by the provisions of this Directive. They must have public responsibilities for the environment and be under the control of public authorities. Therefore, if the Directive is to be applicable to it, a body, such as that mentioned by the Honourable Member, need only meet those two conditions. Without further information, the Commission cannot say whether or not the body mentioned in the present question is within the scope of Article 6 of Directive 90/313/EEC. (1) OJ L 158, 23. 6. 1990. (98/C 174/128) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3587/97 by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Commission (13 November 1997) Subject: Free issue of public road transport licences to non-Greek hauliers The Greek authorities assert that the Commission is putting pressure on Greece to issue lorry licences to non-Greek road hauliers without restriction. They also point out that the issue of licences to road hauliers is completely unrestricted in all the other Member States of the Union. Will the Commission say to what extent this is true and whether this measure is required by Community legislation and specify the regulations and directives which oblige the Greek authorities to issue these licences without restriction? Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (20 January 1998) The Commission has not put any pressure on the Greek authorities in the matter to which the Honourable Member refers, namely, the issuing by Greece of licences to non-Greek road hauliers. The Greek national market, where access has hitherto been rather strictly controlled, is being gradually opened up to non-Greek hauliers through the cabotage regime which the Council adopted in 1993 under Regulation (EEC) No 3118/93 (1). The statistical evidence so far indicates that very few hauliers from other Member States carry out cabotage operations in Greece, the authorizations for which are issued by the Member State of establishment of the transport operator, not by Greece. (1) OJ L 279, 12. 11. 1993