IN THE CHAIR: Sylvia-Yvonne KAUFMANN
Vice-President

11. Question Time (Council)

Verbatim reports

Parliament considered a number of questions to the Council (B6-0676/2005).

The President reminded the House that a new procedure for Council Question Time had been agreed with the Council and that Members had been notified of this on 9 December 2005.

Under the new system, Question Time would be split into two parts. During the first part, the minister responsible for general affairs would answer four priority questions chosen by the President. During the second part, the Secretary of State responsible for Foreign Affairs would answer nine questions relating to foreign affairs.

Hans Winkler (President-in-Office of the Council) clarified certain aspects of the new procedure.

Part one

Question 1 (Liam Aylward): Climate change.

Hans Winkler (President-in-Office of the Council) answered the question and supplementaries by Liam Aylward, Paul Rübig and Richard Seeber.

Question 2 had been withdrawn.

Question 3 (Ursula Stenzel): Coordination between organisations (EU, Council of Europe and OSCE) and human rights compliance in the fight against terrorism.

Hans Winkler answered the question and supplementaries by Ursula Stenzel, David Martin and Reinhard Rack.

Question 4 (Diamanto Manolakou): Illegal abduction and arrest of Pakistanis living in Greece.

Hans Winkler answered the question and supplementaries by Athanasios Pafilis (deputising for the author) and Dimitrios Papadimoulis.

Part two

Question 5 (Manuel Medina Ortega): Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Conference.

Hans Winkler answered the question and supplementaries by Manuel Medina Ortega and David Martin.

Question 6 (Bernd Posselt): Status of Kosovo.

Question 7 (Dimitrios Papadimoulis): Settlement of the status of Kosovo.

Question 8 (Othmar Karas): West Balkans / Kosovo.

Hans Winkler answered the questions and supplementaries by Bernd Posselt, Dimitrios Papadimoulis and Othmar Karas.

Question 9 (John Bowis): Persecution and harassment of Christians.

Hans Winkler answered the question and supplementaries by John Bowis, Paul Rübig, James Hugh Allister and Bernd Posselt.

Question 10 would not be taken as the subject to which it referred was already on the agenda of the part-session.

Question 11 (Inger Segelström): Colombia.

Hans Winkler answered the question and supplementaries by Inger Segelström and Paul Rübig.

Question 12 lapsed as its author was absent.

Question 13 (Athanasios Pafilis): Attempt to condemn communism.

Hans Winkler answered the question and supplementaries by Athanasios Pafilis and Paul Rübig.

Questions which had not been answered for lack of time would receive written answers (see annex to the Verbatim Report of Proceedings).

Council Question Time closed.