EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 33/36

(2004/C 33 E/033)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0185/03

by Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(31 January 2003)

Subject: Public access to documents — consultation on GATS proposals

Given the EU's commitment to transparency and to ensuring that citizens have the widest possible access to documentation, and given the widespread concern being voiced by European citizens who want clarification on:

— how GATS may be applied to public services;

— the impact of present rules on the poorest nations;

— the potential impact on national and local government regulations;

— the implications of the binding nature of GATS rulings and the requirement of future governments of a different political composition to these rules;

would the Commission state what access members of the public will have to Commission documents on the current round of GATS negotiations? In particular will unlimited access be granted to documents containing what requests are made of the European Union and what offers are made in the EU's name?

Joint answer

to Written Questions E-0169/03 and E-0185/03

given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(19 March 2003)

The Commission is fully committed to being as transparent as possible with all stakeholders in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations. Transparency is a natural component in a democracy and the Commission makes considerable time and resources available to debate trade policy issues with all stakeholders, in particular the Parliament. But an appropriate balance must be struck between transparency and the Community's ability to negotiate in an atmosphere conducive to frank and open discussions.

The Commission ensures that Members of the Parliament are regularly briefed on trade policy issues and consulted on key questions in accordance with the Framework Agreement of 5 July 2000. The Member of the Commission responsible for Trade meets and takes part in exchanges of views with Members in the Parliament whether in plenary, in the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (ITRE) or in the framework of informal groups on a regular basis. In keeping with the Commission's desire to keep Members fully abreast of developments in the trade policy area, the initial requests to other World Trade Organisation (WTO) Members for improved market access on services were made available to the ITRE Committee in July 2002.

For further details on the Community's requests, the Honourable Members are referred to the Commission's answer to Written Question E-3130/02 by Mrs Figueiredo (1). The Commission has followed the same procedure with the draft Community offer and has made this available simultaneously to the ITRE Committee and to the Council.

As regards the general public, the Commission makes considerable time and resources available to consult on and debate all trade policy issues. In 1998 the Commission launched a Civil Society Dialogue with the specific objective of developing a confident working relationship between all interested stakeholders in the trade policy field. Within this framework, regular consultations in various formats with regard to all aspects of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), including issues raised by the service negotiations, have taken place since 1999. Furthermore, the Community's general objectives for the GATS negotiations as well as its objectives for most of the sectors covered by the GATS have been publicly available for some time through, for example, the Union and WTO Web Sites. Indeed, the sectoral proposals were all submitted to the WTO in December 2000 and a Communication on the Community's general objectives was submitted in March 2001.

In addition, a summary of Community's initial requests was published in July 2002 on the Commission's Web Site (DG TRADE) (2) and on 12 November 2002 the Commission launched an unprecedented public consultation on the requests addressed by WTO members to the Community by publishing a comprehensive consultative document in all official languages outlining the main issues raised in the requests. The public consultation has been met with a large public response. The Commission has subsequently analysed the comments submitted and has considered these as it has prepared the draft Community offer. The Commission welcomes the many contributions it has received that have helped it identify issues of current concern or interests to all stakeholders.

With respect to what access members of the public will have to the initial requests tabled by the Community and other WTO Members in these negotiations, the Commission would refer the Honourable Members to its answer to Written Question E-2446/02 by Mr Deva (3). As regards the Community's offer in the services negotiations the Commission has announced that the EU's offer will be made public once it has been sent to our trading partners. This is an unprecedented step.

The Commission believes the above efforts show its strong commitment to transparency while safeguarding its ability to negotiate.

(1) OJ C 11 E, 15.1.2004, p. 27.

(2) http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/wto_overview/index_en.htm.

(3) OJ C 110 E, 8.5.2003, p. 55.