WRITTEN QUESTION E-1256/00 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Radioactive bombs in Kosovo.
C 72 E/32 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 6. 3. 2001 Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission (23 May 2000) The Commission is not currently planning measures to ensure judicial cooperation with regard to the international abduction of minors. With regard to the harmonisation of the provisions of the Member States relating to the recognition of child custody arrangements, the Commissionís scoreboard includes measures on mutual recognition in civil matters, including family matters. Moreover, a seminar, to be attended by the Commission, will be held in Paris on 3 and 4 July 2000 in order to discuss mutual recognition. The French Presidency will be giving priority to an initiative to launch a European enforcement order in respect of family matters (visiting rights). The Commission has no powers top constrain the Member States to apply the Hague Convention in the appropriate manner. (2001/C 72 E/036) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1256/00 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (14 April 2000) Subject: Radioactive bombs in Kosovo During last eleven weeks of the war in Kosovo, NATO aircraft dropped depleted uranium bombs in quantities amounting to hundreds of kilos of radioactive material. The bombs, devised as anti-tank weapons, are fairly cheap since depleted uranium is a by-product of other processes. They release a very fine uranium oxide powder (the diameter of each particle is 400 times smaller that that of a grain of sand), which is dispersed over tens of kilometres by the wind or carried in surface water. The radioactivity produced in this way is extremely dangerous if inhaled or ingested as it causes internal contamination. The uranium particles are easily soluble in body fluids and lodge in the victimís organs, such as kidneys, liver and bones. People in the contaminated area thus suffer serious damage to their organism, as a result of radiation or direct contamination. From the experience of the Gulf War, when similar bombs were used and hundreds of US soldiers are still suffering the effects, it has emerged that the most immediate effects on human beings include cancer, leukaemia, miscarriages and congenital malformations and diseases of the liver and nervous system. Then there are the long-term effects on the environment. Does the Commission: 1. Not consider that it is necessary to adopt measures to ascertain the extent of the radioactive pollution in Kosovo? 2. Not think it should encourage decontamination measures? 3. Not think it should introduce a specific screening programme for high risk groups, such as pregnant women and children? 4. Not consider it necessary to promote an international campaign to ban depleted uranium bombs? 6. 3. 2001 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 72 E/33 Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission (14 June 2000) The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to the replies which it has already given to Oral Questions H-429/99 by Mr Alavanos and H-431/99 by Mr Papayannakis during question time at Parliamentís September 1999 part-session (1) and to Written Question E-1481/99 by Mr Manisco (2). In response to the first question raised by the Honourable Member, two studies have been carried out to ascertain, inter alia, whether there was radioactive pollution as a result of the use of depleted uranium bombs in Kosovo. The first assessment, financed by the Commission, was a preliminary assessment of the environmental impact of the Kosovo conflict, and was carried out by the Regional environment centre for Central and Eastern Europe. This report is available on their website: www. rec. org. A more detailed assessment was then carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Balkans Task Force ü the report of which is available on their website: www. grid. unep. ch. Both of these reports concluded that the Kosovo conflict did not cause an environmental catastrophe for the region. In light of this, it was not felt necessary to introduce measures such as suggested in the next two questions posed by the Honourable Member. Nonetheless, the Commission, through its humanitarian office (ECHO) and through its Task Force Kosovo, now replaced by the Reconstruction Agency, has taken a leading role in the broader international effort to address other identified issues, particularly in the field of water treatment. It is also supporting a regional environmental reconstruction programme, within the framework of the Stability Pact, which will assist in environmental reconstruction throughout the wider Balkans region. The Commission has not been able to consider the wider issue of whether depleted uranium bombs should be banned because it has no competencies in the field of weapons. (1) Debates of the European Parliament (September 1999). (2) OJ C 203 E, 18. 7. 2000, p. 2. (2001/C 72 E/037) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1261/00 by Camilo Nogueira RomÆn (Verts/ALE) to the Commission (19 April 2000) Subject: Relocating the Empresa Nacional de Celulosa-Electroquímica del Noroeste (ENCE-ELNOSA) indus- trial complex, located in the town of Pontevedra on the estuary of the same name in Galicia The industrial complex comprising the public undertakings ENCE, which produces paper pulp, and Elnosa, which produces chlorine, is located a few hundred yards from the town centre of Pontevedra, on the banks of the estuary of that name, and close to the town and port of Marín. At the present time the complex is a contributory factor to the steady deterioration of the shellfish and fish-rich waters of the estuary, and spoils living conditions in the towns concerned thanks to the air pollution it produces, seriously hindering both townsí urban development. If the chemical plant did not exist, Pontevedra and Marín would form a single town planning area. The space occupied by the factories and by a vast lagoon into which their waste water is discharged, is on the coast, in one of the most richly endowed natural areas in Galicia. The industrial complex stands on land held under an administrative concession, which is legally bound to run out in the year 2018, under Article 62(2) of the Spanish law on coastlines. Furthermore, the complex is illegal. In 1989 the threat it represents, and unremitting protests by local people, forced the Galician Government to sign an agreement with ENCE on limits for discharges into the sea, as a pre-condition for using a drainage channel to take the waste waters to the middle of the estuary, and in 1991 the government ruled that Elnosa was to be temporarily closed down. ENCE failed to meet the terms of the agreement signed, with the result that as late as 1998, the Galician Government was still refusing to allow