WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3766/97 by Cristiana MUSCARDINI , Gastone PARIGI , Amedeo AMADEO to the Commission. Safety standards in European legislation
8. 6. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 174/121 (98/C 174/185) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3758/97 by Jens-Peter Bonde (I-EDN) to the Commission (21 November 1997) Subject: Size of plaice and sustainable development Will the Commission explain how reducing the size of plaice from 27 to 22 cm is consistent with sustainable development? Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission (7 January 1998) In its proposal for a Council regulation laying down certain technical measures for the conservation of fishery resources (1), the Commission proposed to decrease the minimum size for plaice from 27 cm to 17 cm. The Commissionís new proposals for minimum sizes of marine organisms were based on a number of considerations. These include establishment of the correct match between mesh size used and minimum size, marketing issues related to landings of small-sized fish and prevention of targeted fisheries for small-sized fish with nets of too small mesh sizes. In the case of plaice, the Commissionís main consideration in formulating the proposal was to establish a high degree of consistency between mesh size predominantly used and minimum size. The Council, for various reasons, was not able to adopt this proposal and instead adopted a decrease of the minimum size from 27 cm to 22 cm. As this minimum size maintains a fair consistency with mesh sizes used for catching plaice, this compromise was acceptable to the Commission. (1) OJ C 292, 4. 10. 1996. (98/C 174/186) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3766/97 by Cristiana Muscardini (NI), Gastone Parigi (NI) and Amedeo Amadeo (NI) to the Commission (21 November 1997) Subject: Safety standards in European legislation A number of Member States, including Italy, do not observe current Community provisions on safety standards, not just with regard to workplaces, but above all where treatment and rehabilitation centres are concerned. The provisions governing safety standards are contradictory in some Member States, Italy being one example. Will the Commission therefore open an investigation in all the Member States, in order to ascertain that European safety legislation is being implemented, and formal notice on countries which are failing wholly or in part to fulfil their obligations? Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (9 January 1998) Monitoring the implementation of Community law is an ongoing activity of the Commission which, in the case of the directives on health and safety at work, is still developing since it was only fairly recently that the time limit for transposing the directives expired. For more information on the Commissionís monitoring activities, the Honourable Member is referred to the 14th annual Commission report to the Parliament on monitoring the application of Community law (1) and, in particular, to its annex entitled Report on the application of directivesí