WRITTEN QUESTION E-0537/00 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission. European standards for emissions and residues from incinerators.
21. 11. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 330 E/183 2. How does the Commission intend to increase the willingness of universities to recognise each otherís certificates or to change the practical aspects of recognition so that interested students may take part without losing time at their home universities? 3. What measures does the Commission intend to take to approximate university education systems throughout Europe? Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission (3 April 2000) The academic recognition of diplomas falls within the competence of the Member States. At present there are no Community provisions which cover this type of recognition. Under Article 149 of the EC Treaty, each Member State is solely responsible for the content of its teaching and the organisation of its own educational system and any harmonisation in this respect is excluded. The authorities are entitled to subordinate enrolment in a course of education to the requirement of previous academic recognition of qualifications acquired in another Member State. They are also free to determine the rules governing that type of procedure, since there are no Community regulations laying down that a Member State is required to recognise, for academic purposes, diplomas obtained in another Member State. The Commission encourages mutual recognition for academic purposes between the various education systems in Europe through the Socrates programme, in particular the Erasmus action. A tangible result of the effort to promote understanding of the academic recognition of qualifications is the network of national information centres for the recognition of diplomas (NARIC). These centres provide information on national academic recognition procedures. This network, created in 1984, aims to assist in promoting the mobility of students, teachers and researchers by providing authoritative advice and information concerning the academic recognition of diplomas. The main users of these services are higher education institutions, students and their advisers, parents, teachers and prospective employers. The Commission also encourages and supports ECTS (the European credit transfer system), which provides an instrument to create transparency, to build bridges between institutions and to widen the choices available to students. The system makes it easier for institutions to recognise learning achievements of students through the use of commonly understood measurements ü credits and grades ü and provides a means to interpret national systems of higher education. The ECTS system is based on three core elements: information (on study programmes and student achievement), mutual agreement (between the partner institutions and the student) and the use of ECTS credits (to indicate student workload). The ECTS system is currently used in about 1 300 institutions in the Community, the EEA-states and the associated countries. The system has gained wide acceptance by national authorities, universities and students. Following the debate on the possible synergies between academic and professional recognition, initiated in 1994, the Council invited the Commission, in conclusions of 6 May 1996, to examine the possibilities for the introduction, on a voluntary basis, of a European administrative annex to academic diplomas. The work on this ádiploma supplementí is entrusted to a working party, which was established in December 1996 as a joint initiative of the Commission, the Council of Europe and Unesco/CEPES. Since then, a model for a diploma supplement has been developed. It provides a description of the nature and the contents of academic programmes, the level of the qualification obtained and information on the higher education system in which the qualification has been obtained. (2000/C 330 E/210) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0537/00 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission (28 February 2000) Subject: European standards for emissions and residues from incinerators Could the Commission state what public health and environmental protection standards exist, European Union, in respect of emissions of waste substances or other residues from incinerators? in the C 330 E/184 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 21. 11. 2000 Answer given by Mme Wallström on behalf of the Commission (23 March 2000) In June 1989 two directives were adopted to control the emissions of certain pollutants from municipal waste incineration plants: Council Directive 89/369/EEC of 8 June 1989 on the prevention of air pollution from new municipal waste incineration plants (1) and Council Directive 89/429/EEC of 21 June 1989 on the reduction of air pollution from existing municipal waste incineration plants (2). These directives have made a considerable contribution to the reduction of emissions of pollutants in the Community. However, their scope is restricted to municipal waste while incineration is increasingly used as a means of treatment for other wastes, such as sewage sludge, clinical waste and tyres. In 1994 Council Directive 94/67/EC of 16 December 1994 on the incineration of hazardous waste (3) was adopted. This introduces conditions for the operation of plants for incinerating the most hazardous wastes. It imposes more stringent standards for emissions than the 1989 directives for municipal waste incinera- tion and introduces numerical emission limits for dioxins and furans. In future, all three directives will be repealed and replaced by a single directive, which sets emission limit values for all relevant pollutants. The Council adopted a common position on the future directive on incineration on 25 November 1999 (4). The second reading will take place in March 2000 and the final adoption is expected for autumn 2000. The proposed emission limit values will become applicable to existing plants five years after the adoption of the directive, that is to say probably in autumn 2005. (1) OJ L 163, 14. 6. 1989. (2) OJ L 203, 15. 7. 1989. (3) OJ L 365, 31. 12. 1994. (4) OJ C 25, 28. 1. 2000. (2000/C 330 E/211) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0541/00 by Minerva Malliori (PSE) to the Commission (21 February 2000) Subject: Mental health In view of the resolution on mental health adopted unanimously on 18 November 1999 at the meeting of the Council of Health Ministers, the conclusions of the European Summit conference held under the Finnish presidency and the observations by Mr Byrne, member of the Commission, concerning a set of measures in the field of mental health, does the Commission in fact intend to take measures in this area and if so what measures, particularly in view of quantitative and qualitative findings which reveal the serious impact of mental disorders on European citizens in many areas of their everyday life? Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission (22 March 2000) The Commission is currently developing a health strategy in which mental health will play a role. This strategy will take account of the resolution on mental health of the Health Council and the conclusions of the conference held under the Finnish Presidency. Important developments in the area of mental health are already taking place under the Community action programmes on health promotion and health monitoring. A report on the mental health promotion of children has recently been published as a result of a project