WRITTEN QUESTION E-0374/00 by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Higher education in the United Kingdom.
21. 11. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 330 E/143 (2000/C 330 E/160) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0372/00 by Lord Inglewood (PPE-DE) to the Commission (8 February 2000) Subject: Implementation in the UK of Article 33 of the EC Treaty Is the Commission satisfied that the United Kingdom is honouring its obligations under Article 33(1)(b) of the EC Treaty (consolidated version)? Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (25 February 2000) Article 33 (ex Article 39) of the EC Treaty sets out the objectives of the common agricultural policy. As the Court of justice has stated, it is the responsibility of the Community institutions, in adopting the common organisation of agricultural markets under the EC Treaty, to secure the permanent harmonisation between the various objectives of the common agricultural policy set out in Article 33, which may prove to be contradictory, and, where necessary, allow any one of them temporary priority in order to satisfy the demands of the economic factors or conditions in view of which their decisions are made. The Court has repeatedly referred to the broad discretion which the Community institutions have in this respect. As a result, in itself, an in principle no single one of the objectives listed in Article 33 constitutes, appropriate yardstick by which the acts of any individual Member State are to be judged, and it therefore does not fall to the Commission to make any such judgment. Of course, the Member States, in applying the common agricultural policy within their competence, are subject to the general principles of Community law, and specific rules laid down in Community legislation, and it is the Commissionís task to ensure compliance with these requirements in specific cases. (2000/C 330 E/161) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0374/00 by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission Subject: Higher education in the United Kingdom (14 February 2000) Does not the Commission feel that its educational programmes such as Erasmus and Socrates (which offer all EU students the chance to study in other Member States), are being undermined by the inequitable situation in the UK whereby a non-British student wishing to study in Scotland will have the payment of fees deferred, whilst one wishing to study in England will have to pay upon enrolment? Does not the Commission agree that this situation gives Scottish universities an unfair advantage over their English, Welsh and Northern Irish competitors when trying to enrol students, and does it not agree that this therefore constitutes a breach of EU competition law? (2000/C 330 E/162) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0375/00 by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission Subject: Higher education tuition fees (14 February 2000) Devolution within the UK now presents a situation whereby students from other Member States in the EU will be exempt from paying tuition fees in Scotland but not in England, Wales and Northern Ireland