Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-13-Speech-1-174"
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"en.20060213.15.1-174"2
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"Mr President, as vice-chairwoman of the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament and given that we are debating the report by my honourable friend Mr Cashman on confiscations of automobiles in Greece, I should point out the following: firstly, a final judgment has not been returned on all the cases before the judicial authorities; consequently there are proceedings pending and, if we assume that we have this jurisdiction, then why has it not also been applied to other similar cases? I would refer by way of example to the example of the petition on dismissals from the SY.EL.AE fertiliser factory, a matter on which the drafting of a report was requested but which was never drafted, however, on the grounds that proceedings were pending.
Secondly, the report only concerns Greece, at a time when similar petitions have also been filed for other Member States of the European Union. The obvious conclusion from this is that European citizens are subject to discriminatory treatment by the European Parliament itself.
Let us look now at the report, the petitions and the data: Community directive 83/182 on tax exemptions lays down the preconditions for application of the scheme for the temporary importation and transportation of automobiles for private use. It does not stipulate the fines imposed, for which the Member States are competent. Greek legislation on the fines was adopted in order to suppress fraud in the automobile sector, at a time when it was rife. Besides, the fines do not relate solely to individuals; they also relate to dealers and organised groups that are demonstrably trying to evade taxes.
With respect to the non-application of the rule of proportionality, which the report cites for the imposition of fines on the basis solely of the cubic capacity of the vehicle, the court notes that the adoption of such measures is needed for reasons of suppression and prevention. Greek legislation has already been improved with law 2960/2001 abolishing the penalty of smuggling and confiscation of vehicles and making provision solely for temporary seizure pending payment of a fine in order to secure the Greek state. As a result, the courts have handed down acquittals in respect of the criminal element, but not in respect of the fines.
As far as the fines are concerned, a bill was tabled before the Greek parliament on 22 December 2005, which makes provision for reductions and for the application of temporary seizure in exceptional cases only. It is, I think, clear that we are all defending the application of the
while at the same time recognising crucial differences between the Member States."@en1
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