WRITTEN QUESTION No. 592/97 by Luisa TODINI , Claudio AZZOLINI , Guido PODESTÀ , Roberto MEZZAROMA , Alessandro FONTANA , Alessandro DANESIN to the Commission. Procedural delays in the application of the Lomé IV Convention
Date: 1997-02-25
Institutions: AZZOLINI, DANESIN, European Parliament, FONTANA, MEZZAROMA, PODESTA, TODINI
Subjects: Africa, EU programme, European Development Fund, administrative procedure, administrative transparency, development aid, economic cooperation, fourth Lomé Convention, legal cooperation, technical barriers to trade













EUR-Lex - 91997E0592 - EN






Avis juridique important




|



91997E0592

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 592/97 by Luisa TODINI , Claudio AZZOLINI , Guido PODESTÀ , Roberto MEZZAROMA , Alessandro FONTANA , Alessandro DANESIN to the Commission. Procedural delays in the application of the Lomé IV Convention  


Official Journal C 367 , 04/12/1997 P. 0029 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-0592/97 by Luisa Todini (UPE), Claudio Azzolini (UPE), Guido Podestà (UPE), Roberto Mezzaroma (UPE), Alessandro Fontana (PPE) and Alessandro Danesin (UPE) to the Commission (25 February 1997)Subject: Procedural delays in the application of the Lomé IV ConventionIn the second stage of the Financial Protocol Lomé IV makes provision for speeding up and increasing intervention by the EDF, which is bound to complicate the procedures concerning projects for which DG VIII and the beneficiary countries are jointly responsible.Potential legal questions resulting from the implementation of such projects are also often made more complicated because crisis situations in certain regions, especially in Africa, cause unforeseen difficulties and give rise to 'reservations' or 'dispute' procedures. All this places an increasing burden on the offices of the 'Legal Matters Unit' whose delicate work has an influence on, inter alia, the possibility of recourse to arbitration and may cause delays beyond the Unit's control, with adverse effects on the businesses who apply to it and on the efficient running of the EDF.Does the European Commission, in particular the Commissioner responsible for Lomé IV, intend to take swift and effective action to reduce the procedural delays mentioned and make the procedures more transparent, so as to avoid putting businesses in a difficult situation? What does the Commission intend to do in general? Does it intend to increase the number of staff working in the Legal Matters Unit?Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (25 April 1997)The Commission confirms that the crises in a number of African countries have raised complex legal questions, particularly in connection with the monitoring of contracts for the implementation of projects and programmes. This has meant additional work for the Commission over and above the development cooperationmeasures implemented to improve financial management and the intensification of legal supervision which these measures have necessarily entailed. The resultant increase in transparency and efficiency was recently commended by Parliament and the Commission confirms its intention to continue along the same path.In the current climate of budget austerity, the Commission's human resource requirements exceed resources available.It has become apparent that while the development aid workload has increased, human resources have decreased.The Commission is currently trying to find a solution to this structural problem. It has decided in the interim to support those units whose workload has increased substantially by redeploying existing resources within the Directorate-General for Development. It is in this context that a decision has been taken to transfer human resources to the 'Legal Matters Unit.'