WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1276/98 by Gerhard HAGER to the Commission. Enlargement, freedom of movement and transitional periods
19. 11. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 354/87 (98/C 354/139) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1276/98 by Gerhard Hager (NI) to the Commission (29 April 1998) Subject: Enlargement, freedom of movement and transitional periods When Spain and Portugal acceded to the Community as part of enlargement towards the South, freedom of movement of persons was subjected to transitional periods, since this was considered a useful means of ensuring that the necessary adjustments could be made. The pressure of immigration from the candidate countries following the next round of enlargement will also be very high, and the neighbouring Member States will be particularly affected. 1. What considerations did the Commission take into account in deciding to impose transitional periods as part of Community enlargement towards the South? 2. On what studies or investigations did it base its decisions at that time? 3. What studies or investigations has the Commission used so far to prepare the forthcoming round of enlargement? How does it realistically estimate the length of the transitional periods for EU enlargement towards the East 4. at present? If it expects the length of the transitional periods to be different than in the case of enlargement towards the 5. South, how does it justify these differences? 6. What will be the potential number of immigrants when access to the labour market is opened up? 7. What kind of people will want to immigrate? 8. Why will they want to immigrate? 9. How will immigrants be distributed among the target countries? In answering these questions, could the Commission draw in particular on data from the period after the unveiling of Agenda 2000 in July last year? Answer given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission (22 June 1998) The accession negotiations are inter-governmental negotiations between the Member States and each of the candidate countries individually. Although the Commission is invited to make proposals on all the problems posed by the accession negotiations, it is the Member States that formulate collectively the Community negotiation positions. The Honourable Memberís enquiries about Commission decisions in the negotiations are therefore not pertinent. (98/C 354/140) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1294/98 by Robin Teverson (ELDR) to the Commission (29 April 1998) Subject: The Ad Hoc Group on Illegal Trade in Ozone-depleting substances What decisions were made at the meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on Ozone-depleting Substancesí, which took place on Thursday 26 March 1998, and when will it meet again? Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (3 June 1998) The meeting of the ad hoc group on illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances was attended by representatives of the Commission, Member Statesí environment and customs authorities, the European chemicals industry and a non-governmental organisation which has published a report into illegal chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and halon trade in Europe. There was a useful exchange of information on the current availability and prices of ozone-depleting substances in the Community which seemed to indicate that CFCs were becoming increasingly scarce but also that there might continue to be a problem of illegal imports