WRITTEN QUESTION E-2508/99 by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE-DE) to the Council. Trade.
C 225 E/154 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 8. 8. 2000 (2000/C 225 E/168) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2508/99 by Jaime Valdivielso de CuØ (PPE-DE) to the Council (22 December 1999) Subject: Trade On 9 November 1999, following the Council meeting of EU Industry Ministers, it became clear that the difficulties currently facing European shipyards in general and Spanish ones in particular are largely due to the ádumpingí practised by South Korea. Why has no action been taken against the country in question, whose dumping practices are partly financed out of international funds? Reply (28 February 2000) In its Conclusions of 9 November 1999 on the situation in world shipbuilding, the Industry Council shared the Commissionís view that the shipbuilding sector is facing a critical situation world-wide with very low prices and a serious overcapacity caused by the Republic of Korea, which severely affects the European shipbuilding industry. The Council also expressed its serious concern on the results of the Commissionís investigations which indicate that contracts have been awarded in the Republic of Korea at prices below cost, thus causing damage to the interests of EU yards. Consequently, the Council called on the Commission to pursue its efforts to establish a level playing field for the sector by immediately engaging the Republic of Korea in constructive consultations with a view to halting the unfair competition. On the basis of these conclusions, a joint meeting between the representatives of the EC Commission and of EU industry on one side and the representatives of the Government of Korea and Korean Industry on the other side took place in Paris on 14 December 1999 in the framework of the OECD. The two sides had a constructive dialogue on EUís concerns over the world shipbuilding market situation which covered supply and demand, over-capacity and low prices and the question of the financing of Korean shipyards in difficulties like Halla and Daewoo. (2000/C 225 E/169) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2511/99 by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) and María Valenciano Martínez-Orozco (PSE) to the Commission (22 December 1999) Subject: Infringement of the principle of sex equality in chess tournaments within the European Union By law, all the EU Member States specifically ban mixed chess tournaments involving matches between players of the opposite sex. However, playing chess (which is an intellectual pursuit) does not require any particular muscular or physical capacity which could justify segregating players on the basis of their sex. Last year the Commission, in reply to a petition submitted by the Spanish citizen JosØ Eduardo Da Riva Alfonso (Petition No 253/98), took the view that there was no justification whatever for such discrimina- tion. Although it was true that, in certain sports, men and women competed in different categories, chess did not require any specific physical preparation or ability which was beyond the reach of women. To quote from the Amsterdam Treaty and, in particular the following Articles thereof: ü Article 2: The Community shall have as its task, by implementing common policies or activities , to promote equality between men and womení,