WRITTEN QUESTION No. 4226/97 by Cristiana MUSCARDINI , Gianfranco FINI , Amedeo AMADEO , Roberta ANGELILLI , Spalato BELLERE' , Marco CELLAI , Gastone PARIGI , Sebastiano MUSUMECI , Salvatore TATARELLA , Antonio TRIZZA to the Council. Return of the assets of Holocaust victims
Date: 1998-01-22
Institutions: AMADEO, ANGELILLI, BELLERE, CELLAI, European Parliament, FINI, MUSCARDINI, MUSUMECI, PARIGI, TATARELLA, TRIZZA
Subjects: Germany, National Socialism, central bank, gold, theft, war, war crime, war damage, war victim

17. 7. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 223/75

Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission

(12 March 1998)

The Commission is aware of the problems raised by the Honourable Member, and shares her concern. It has
1.
been working actively on these issues for over two years and has recently adopted a proposal for an action plan
on  promoting  safe  use  of  the  Internet (1)  and  a  proposal  for  a  Council  recommendation  for  the  protection  of
minors and human dignity in audiovisual and information services (2).

The  action  plan  will  provide  a  basis  for  Community  co-funding  of  a  European  network  of  hotlines  for
2.
reporting illegal content such as child pornography, for European filtering and rating systems and for actions to
promote awareness. The action plan will also provide support for action under the Council recommendation for
European co-ordination of actions at national level in the field of self-regulation. International co-operation will
also be reinforced under these two measures.

3.
The Commission has further been actively engaged in the discussions of the Council under the third pillar,
and in discussions of the Eight (including Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany,
France,  Italy  and  the  United  Kingdom)  to  develop  legal  and  technical  mechanisms  that  allow  for  timely
international  law  enforcement  response  to  computer-related  crimes.  The  Commission  is  involved  in  the
implementation of the action plan to combat organised crime endorsed by the European Council in Amsterdam
and which includes a recommendation to combat the criminal use of new technologies.

These  actions  will  contribute  substantially  to  discouraging  the  circulation  of  child  pornography  on  the

4.
Internet.

(1)  OJ C 48, 13.2.1998.
(2)  COM(97) 570 final.

(98/C 223/93)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4226/97

by Cristiana Muscardini (NI), Gianfranco Fini (NI), Amedeo Amadeo (NI),
Roberta Angelilli (NI), Spalato Bellere· (NI), Marco Cellai (NI), Gastone Parigi (NI),
Sebastiano Musumeci (NI), Salvatore Tatarella (NI) and Antonio Trizza (NI) to the Council

Subject: Return of the assets of Holocaust victims

(22 January 1998)

The  press  throughout  Europe  has  quite  rightly  been  publishing  frequent  and  sympathetic  reports  about  the
Holocaust and the survivors of this enormous tragedy. Fifty years after the event the question of returning the
assets stolen from the victims or kept in credit institutions and banks in various countries has not been settled, nor
has the fate of the gold stolen by the Nazis been ascertained.

In view of the legitimate nature of the demands made by the survivors and victims(cid:146) lawful heirs, can the Council
say whether it intends to exert all possible pressure on the governments concerned, whether they belong to the
European Union or not, to persuade them to put an end to this blatant injustice?

Answer

(27 April 1998)

As  the  Community  has  no  competence  in  this  area,  the  Council  is  not  in  a  position  to  exert  pressure  on  the
governments concerned on this issue.

In many countries, including Member States of the European Union, investigations by committees and other
independent bodies are now being carried out in order to shed light on questions of what happened to property
which belonged to holocaust victims as well as what happened to gold looted by the Nazis in the central banks of
occupied  countries.  International  conferences  on  these  questions  have  been  held  and  further  conferences  are
planned.