WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2922/98 by Pasqualina NAPOLETANO to the Commission. Serious irregularities during tests for EC competitions
Date: 1998-09-25
Institutions: European Parliament, NAPOLETANO
Subjects: European official, administrative transparency, competition (EU), fraud, recruitment

C 118/164

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.4.1999

3.
Can the Commission say what measures it is carrying out or intends to implement to guarantee full
and permanent compliance with the health requirements for the production of fishery products from those
countries?

Can the Commission say whether, on its own initiative or in conjunction with the Member States, it
4.
has already ascertained/checked the health conditions of fishery products imported from the authorised
third countries and what the global results were?

(1) OJ L 122, 14.5.1997, p. 21.

Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission

(3 November 1998)

Commission Decision 97/296/EC of 22 April 1997, drawing up the list of third countries from which the
import of fishery products is authorised for human consumption, entered into force on 1 July 1998. It
contains three lists of third countries. List I of Annex I indicates the third countries covered by a specific
Commission decision on the import of fishery products. Such decisions are adopted following a mission
by Community and Member State experts to the country to verify the monitoring conditions applied by the
local authority. List II of Annex I and the list constituted by Annex II indicate third countries for which a
study of the membership application file has found that the information received is satisfactory (list II of
Annex I) or substantial (Annex II). Under these circumstances, import arrangements are not totally
harmonised as regards the lists of authorised establishments. It is the responsibility of each Member State
to obtain any guarantees from the third country concerned. Most third countries on these two lists have not
been subjected to an on-the-spot inspection by Commission experts.

Council Directive 91/493/EEC of 22 July 1991 laying down the health conditions for the production and
the placing on the market of fishery products (1) requires the same health conditions to apply to both
Member States and third countries.

(1) OJ L 268, 24.9.1991.

(1999/C 118/205)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2922/98

by Pasqualina Napoletano (PSE) to the Commission

(25 September 1998)

Subject: Serious irregularities during tests for EC competitions

During open competition COM/A/8/9/10/11/12/98 for administrators and assistant administrators held at
the Hotel Ergife, Rome on 14 September 1998 there occurred a case of bad organisation and management
in the fourth and last (language) test, the box containing the test papers having been mislaid.

Apart from this incomprehensible carelessness, at the end of the third test, when it was discovered that the
test papers were missing the candidates remained in the examination room with the form on which the
answers were to be written without any supervision by the invigilators, so that a series of irregularities
occurred such as comparison of answers, the use of cell telephones to ask for outside help, and other
irregularities.

In view of this, does the Commission think that the competition can be considered valid from the point of
view of transparency, aptitude of the candidates and proper organisation of the tests?