WRITTEN QUESTION No. 528/98 by Concepció FERRER to the Council. Poverty 4 programme
17. 7. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 223/177 (98/C 223/231) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0528/98 by Concepcio· Ferrer (PPE) to the Council (27 February 1998) Subject: Poverty 4 programme When the Poverty 3 programme ended on 30 June 1994, a new programme was drawn up which has yet to be adopted by the Council. Bearing in mind that the programme was intended to finance measures to improve housing conditions and the integration of the homeless, will the Council say when it intends to adopt this programme? Answer (11 May 1998) As the Honourable Member has just stated, the Commission submitted to the Council in 1994 a proposal for a Council Decision establishing a medium-term pilot programme to combat economic and social exclusion and promote solidarity. The programme was intended to cover the period 1994-1999. The unanimity on this proposal required by the legal basis (Article 235 of the TEC) could not be reached at Council level on 24 June 1994. No further talks have been held by the Council since then on the proposal for a Decision on the programme to combat economic and social exclusion. The Honourable Member is no doubt aware that the United Kingdom since brought an action before the Court of Justice (1 April 1996) against the Commission seeking the annulment of the decisions referred to in the Commission Press Release of 23 January 1996 on the grounds that the Commission could not incur expenditure within the framework of appropriations entered in the budget - under the heading of action to combat poverty - without lawful authority, if the Council has not adopted a decision to that effect. The case in question is Case C-106/96 (1). The Courtís judgment is pending. (1) OJ C 145, 18. 5. 1996, p. 7. (98/C 223/232) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0548/98 by Luigi Vinci (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (19 February 1998) Subject: Trawling regulations in Italy Since 1990 a number of Italian shipowners have submitted requests for a Community financial contribution, via the Directorate-General for Fisheries of the Ministry for the Mercantile Marine, towards the building of certain fishing units to be used for the ápelagic one-boat trawlingí system (subject to withdrawal of other fishing vessels used for trawling). The Ministryís finance committee had already given a favourable opinion on various requests for similar funding, within the meaning of Reg. (EEC) 4028/86 (1). In this case the Ministry gave its approval for the granting of a licence in respect of both bottom trawling and pelagic one-boat trawling. Both the Ministry and the shipowners in fact considered that the latter was basically equivalent to bottom trawling. However, in 1996 the Ministry informed the shipowners concerned that this licence could be deemed contrary to the EEC Regulation and withdrew it accordingly. As building work on the new vessels had already reached an advanced stage, those concerned asked for a review of the situation. The Ministryís Fisheries DG then asked for the ECís opinion, but only in respect of vessels already in use, and not those under construction which were covered by the same Community funding. The EC responded favourably, on an exceptional basis, to the Italian authoritiesí request and to the granting of such a licence to ábottom trawlingí only in respect of vessels already in use