WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2076/97 by Claudio AZZOLINI to the Commission. Implementation of the Cites Convention
22. 1. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 21/139 Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission (15 July 1997) The setting-up of more than 700 biomedical research networks has enabled cooperation among research workers to be initiated or boosted, the available resources to be pooled, duplication of effort and research to be avoided and critical mass to be achieved in the data needed for the epidemiological studies, more particularly as regards rare diseases or pathologies linked with hazards at work. By way of an example: a project funded by the Community and coordinated by a British laboratory has enabled the existence of a new variant of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease to be established via the exchange of information among various European centres. This result is essential in understanding the inter-species transmission of prion-initiated neurodegenerative diseases and in drawing up a strategy for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. (98/C 21/260) WRITTEN QUESTION P-2076/97 by Claudio Azzolini (UPE) to the Commission (11 June 1997) Subject: Implementation of the Cites Convention The ásuper-finesí provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 (1), which seeks to harmonize implementation in the 15 Member States of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites), come into force on 1 June 1997. As far as coral is concerned, various distinctions must be made with a view to avoiding unlikely, but nevertheless possible, problems. The species to be protected, which appear in the aforementioned Cites list, belong to the class Anthozoa, with particular regard to the Tubiporidae (organpipe corals), Antipatharia (black corals) and Madreporaria groups. Given that all the types of coral to be protected are of madreporarian structure, they cannot be made into necklaces or other types of manufactured goods and are therefore completely different from the Corallium rubrum which is to be found in many parts of the Union. The false information on the subject which has appeared in the weekly and daily press represents a serious threat to direct and indirect jobs in the coral-working sector in areas such as Torre del Greco (Italy), where 6 000 people are employed. Would the Commission not agree that, with a view to protecting both the large number of people employed in this sector and, above all, individual members of the public who might be unjustly punished, it should take steps to ensure that comprehensive supporting evidence is put forward with the utmost urgency, so as to enable the serious and damaging misunderstanding caused by the above press reports to be cleared up? (1) OJ L 61, 3. 3. 1997, p. 1. Answer given by Mme Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (27 June 1997) The false information in the press on the subject of species of coral not covered by Regulation (EC) No 338/97 does not originate either from the Commission or from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) press campaign currently co-financed by the Commission. In order to avoid any damage to the interests of Member States, the Commission has asked the WWF to co-ordinate the content of all communications released during the information campaign on the new Council Regulation with the authorities of the signatory countries to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). During the committee meetings, the national authorities were officially informed by the Commission on several occasions of the progress of the campaign and of the necessity of co-operating with the WWF. WWF Italy has duly collaborated with the Italian authorities in regulating communications released during the information campaign. The communication released cannot give rise to confusion since it indicates that not all types of coral are covered by the Regulation. It specifies that ácertain types of coral should not be gathered as souvenirsí