WRITTEN QUESTION E-3098/02

by José Ribeiro e Castro (UEN) to the Commission

(28 October 2002)

Subject: Representative for cooperation with Macau

In the Commission communication to the Council and Parliament of 12 November 1999 entitled The European Union and Macau: Beyond 2000, it was stated that a cooperation officer would be designated, and that this person would have the task of supporting the process of coordinating bilateral cooperation, for a limited period of time.

Parliament gave its full support to this proposal, and, in paragraph 18 of its resolution of 15 February 2001 on that communication(1), called on the Commission to appoint an EC-Macau cooperation officer to Macau, as announced in its abovementioned communication,

to contribute to the coordination of bilateral cooperation, in order to demonstrate its commitment to consolidating relations between the two sides. Parliament had made a similar demand in an earlier resolution, adopted on 16 December 1992(2) at the time of the transfer of the territory of Macao from Portuguese administration to the People's Republic of China, with the status of a Special Administrative Region.

In the course of the debate in Parliament, Commissioner Nielson mentioned the difficulties surrounding the process of appointing this Community officer, but nonetheless stated: We continue to consider the appointment of the technical cooperation officer very important.

On 19 July 2001, in reply to Written Question P-1961/01(3) by the author of the present question, Commissioner Patten, having evoked those same difficulties affecting the appointment process, declared: The Commission has been preparing the required multiannual cooperation programming for Macau, including the Cooperation Officer appointment. In this context, the Commission is pleased to be able to report that this programming is now in its final stages and the question of the Cooperation Officer will be resolved shortly.

Recent information, however, suggests that no such officer has yet been appointed (it should be stressed that what is called for is the appointment and establishment, for Macau, of an officer having specific responsibility for EC-Macau cooperation, and not for Hong Kong and Macau together).

Can the Commission state whether such an officer, with specific responsibility for EC-Macao cooperation, has been appointed and has started work? If this is not the case, can the Commission explain why and provide information on the state of the procedure? If such an officer has been appointed, can the Commission state the nature of the main lessons and conclusions to be drawn from that officer's first year in the post?

(1) OJ C 276, 1.10.2001, p. 268.

(2) OJ C 296, 18.10.2000, p. 190.

(3) OJ C 364, 20.12.2001, p. 232.

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(29 November 2002)

Since cooperation projects with Macao (European studies, Tourism, Offshore services) which were started in 1997-1998 came to an end in 2001, and the current Community cooperation portfolio for Macao includes just one single project (on legal cooperation, just about to start), it has not been possible for the Commission to proceed with the recruitment of a cooperation officer for Macao.

The Commission remains nevertheless committed, as it has been stressed at the ninth meeting of the Community-Macao Joint Committee held in Brussels on 18 October 2002, to maintain close relations with Macao. To this end, it is presently exploring ways and means to further develop with the Macao Special Administrative Region cooperation activities within the existing budgetary instruments.