WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2152/98 by Ingo FRIEDRICH to the Commission. Illegal placement of foreign workers in the German construction industry
Date: 1998-07-13
Institutions: European Parliament, FRIEDRICH INGO
Subjects: Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, building industry, clandestine worker, labour mobility, migrant worker, moonlighting, services company, transnational corporation

C 96/48

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

8.4.1999

(1999/C 96/067)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2152/98

by Ingo Friedrich (PPE) to the Commission

(13 July 1998)

Subject: Illegal placement of foreign workers in the German construction industry

Is the Commission aware that Dutch companies are illegally arranging employment for English workers on
German building sites?

To what extent does the Commission intend to take action on this matter?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission

(13 October 1998)

The Commission has no knowledge of problems of the kind mentioned by the Honourable Member, concerning
the illegal supply of British labour to German building sites performed by firms based in the Netherlands.

The Commission wishes to stress that in this area, Directive 96/71/EC (1) of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 16 December 1996 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services
provides in Article 4 for cooperation between the public authorities in the Member States which (cid:145)shall in
particular consist in replying to reasoned requests from those authorities for information on the transnational
hiring-out of workers, including manifest abuses or possible cases of unlawful transnational activities(cid:146).

In its communication on undeclared work (2), the Commission noted that an effective strategy for dealing with
undeclared work would need to be comprehensive, involving a mix of both sanctions and prevention.

This shows that it is for the Member States to control the provision of labour on their territory in compliance with
Article 59 of the EC Treaty, since this activity represents a cross-border supply of services.

(1) OJ L 18, 21.1.1997.
(2) COM(98) 219 final.

(1999/C 96/068)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2158/98

by Katerina Daskalaki (UPE) to the Council

(14 July 1998)

Subject: Danger facing the oldest monastery in the world situated in Turkey

The Mar Gabriel Syrian Orthodox monastery, the oldest monastery in the world, is situated in an area of southern
Turkey affected by the Kurdish conflict. The local authorities are preventing the training of novices at Mar
Gabriel and refusing to allow any conservation work to be carried out, with the result that the historic monastery,
which is already suffering from neglect, is falling into a state of total disrepair.

Can the Council make representations to the Turkish authorities with a view to ending the deterioration of this
sixteen-hundred-year-old Christian monastery and the infringements of the rights of the very few monks
remaining there?

Reply

(9 November 1998)

The Council regrets the developments concerning the Mar Gabriel monastery. For its part, the Austrian
Presidency raised this matter at one of its recent bilateral meetings with Turkish officials and intends to bring
up the subject of Christian minorities in Turkey again at future meetings.