WRITTEN QUESTION E-2647/99 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Awarding of a contract for a service that is already covered.
Date: 2000-01-12
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, administrative powers, interinstitutional cooperation (EU), terminology

C 303 E/88

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

24.10.2000

The Community objective in the forthcoming GATS negotiations is not to provoke privatisation or a
general deregulation of the health sector (cid:129) or any other sector where the interest of consumers is
protected by public policy objectives (cid:129) and the Community will not accept anything which could
undermine its public policy objectives in those service sectors covered by GATS which are exclusively or
partly linked to the state, such as health services.

The Commission has no intention to support deregulation of the health sector as a result of liberalisation
within the framework of GATS. The negotiations must not undermine the universal availability and high
standards of health services in Member States, nor the different regulatory models adopted in Member
States.

However, on the other hand, we should not rule out negotiating access for European providers to the
market-based segment of such sectors in third countries.

(2000/C 303 E/080)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2647/99

by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Awarding of a contract for a service that is already covered

(12 January 2000)

The Commission has recently published an invitation to tender (1), for the creation of an interinstitutional
terminology base for the Luxembourg Translation Centre, which would be financed by the Industry
Directorate-General (ex DG III) for the sum of EUR 1,5 million.

The three largest European institutions (the Council, Parliament, and the Commission) already have their
own terminology bases (TIS, Euterpe and Eurodiautom) and these are electronically interconnected. At the
Commission there is even an interface (one-stop-terminology) developed by the internal terminology
department that enables term searches with simultaneous consultation of the three databases mentioned
above and others (JIAMCATT, FAO, ITU etc.), and the use of Internet search engines.

It is not clear from the contract(cid:146)s technical specifications if the project is designed to create a terminology
base from scratch or simply to create a common interface for access to the databases mentioned above,
with the addition of a validation and control function.

Can the Commission answer the following:

1. Why does the Commission plan to create a structure that parallels existing ones?

How can it reconcile this decision with Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 (2), amending Regulation
(EC) No 2965/94 (3), the text of which affirms the need to strengthen administrative collaboration
between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to making overall savings by avoiding
superfluous work and parallel structures?

2. Why does the Commission intend to entrust the implementation and supervision of a project of this
kind to the Translation Centre, given that (cid:129) as its director has publicly admitted (cid:129) it does not have
either the experience or the necessary specific knowledge in the fields of terminology and informatics?

(1) OJ S 163, 24.8.1999.
(2) OJ L 268, 10.11.1995, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 314, 7.12.1994, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2000)

The three largest European institutions already have their own terminology bases (TIS, Euterpe and
Eurodicautom), but these are not electronically interconnected. The Commission does indeed have an
interface that enables term searches with simultaneous consultation of the three major databases and
others (one-stop terminology), but it is internal to the Commission. While a single access mechanism of
this type could be made more widely available and comprehensive, it provides only a partial solution to

24.10.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 303 E/89

the problems of harmonisation of terminology between the institutions and the elimination of redundancy
in both data content and human and financial resources employed. The feasibility study on the creation of
an interinstitutional database initiated by the interinstitutional translation committee concluded that only
an interinstitutional base can really offer a solution to the content redundancy problem and meet the
normative objectives linked with terminology.

In reply to the specific questions:

1. The project in question is intended to replace the current multiplicity of databases with a single,
central and jointly-managed terminology database for the Community. So it is meant to reduce the
current parallel structures and resources in the institutions and avoids the creation of such structures
in the smaller institutions and agencies of the Community. The project has been adopted by the
interinstitutional translation committee and therefore enjoys the support of the translation services of
all the Community institutions. No decision has, however, yet been taken on the location and
management of the planned joint terminology data base.

The initiative is therefore in keeping with the Translation centre(cid:146)s mission, set out in Council
Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 of 30 October 1995 amending Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 setting up
(cid:145)to strengthen administrative collaboration
a Translation centre for bodies of the European Union,
between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to rationalising working methods and
making overall savings by avoiding superfluous work and the creation of expensive parallel structures(cid:146).

2. The technical implementation of the project will be guided by an interinstitutional steering group
composed of expert representatives from the Translation centre, the Parliament, the Council, the
Translation service of the Commission and the Directorate general enterprise. The contract has been
awarded to a firm with considerable experience in the area of database implementation and the
linguistic and terminological expertise is provided by a government research institute with a world-
wide reputation in the language technology field. Furthermore, the project is supervised by an expert
group composed of terminology and informatics specialists from each of the Community institutions,
the decentralised agencies and Member States.

(2000/C 303 E/081)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2654/99

by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Commission

Subject: Prevention of infectious diseases among immigrants

(12 January 2000)

At the Sixth International Workshop on (cid:145)Culture, Health and Immigration(cid:146), held in Rome, the latest
statistics from the preventative medicine section for migration, tourism and tropical dermatology of the
San Gallicano Institute in Italy were issued. These show that among immigrants living in Italy infectious
diseases have increased from 7 % to 11 %.

Of the pathologies found among immigrants the increase in infectious diseases is particularly worrying,
notably viral hepatitis A, B and C, AIDS and cases of leprosy, which had previously been fairly rare.

In the light of the above:

1. Does the Commission not think it would be possible to finance ad hoc structures with the aim of
carrying out health checks at the larger border crossings, in view of the growing influx of immigrants
from outside the Community into the EU Member States?

2. Has the Commission undertaken or is it planning any initiatives designed to prevent the occurrence of
infectious diseases among non-Community nationals in the European Union countries and their
possible spread to the European population?

3. Does it intend to set up specific measures to guarantee the immigrant population access to national

health services?