WRITTEN QUESTION E-1550/00 by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission. Purchasing power parity (PPP) and its current use.
Date: 2000-05-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Eurostat, purchasing power parity

C 89 E/52

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.3.2001

(cid:129) whether it is certain that salmonella has not spread from Italy and Spain to other EU Member States as

a result of the use of Ratin, and

(cid:129) whether there is a link between the use of Ratin and the spread of salmonella infections in the EU?

(1) Politiken 10.4.2000: Salmonella poison sold in the 90s.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(3 July 2000)

The possible approval or prohibition of the use of Ratin was based on national
legislation until the
adoption of Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection
products on the market. Under the Directive, the Commission organises a review programme for all active
substances of plant protection products that were on the market at that time. No Member State informed
the Commission about Ratin being used as a plant protection product in the Community. Directive 1998/
8/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of biocidal
products on the market (1) currently forms the framework for the approval of biocidal products, including
rodenticides, which are not covered by the above-mentioned Directive. Were a compound like Ratin to be
placed on the market, it would require an authorisation either according to Directive 91/414/EEC or 1998/
8/EC or both, depending on its intended use. At the moment the use of Ratin is not authorised.

The evaluation of the actual risk of environmental contamination due to the use of Ratin is highly
It has been assessed in the scientific literature that the product consisted of bacterium
problematic.
salmonella enteritidis phagetype 6a. Salmonella enteritidis is mainly linked to poultry products,
in
particular to table eggs. The increase of
the number of enteritidis contaminated eggs and human
salmonellosis cases due to the bacterium, including other serotypes than 6a, started in the late 1980s,
thus about 30 years after the use of Ratin ceased in most of the Member States. It should also be noted
that the increasing prevalence of salmonella enteritidis has been recorded world-wide, in particular, in the
United States. To conclude,
it may be stated that a number of factors contribute to the spread of
salmonella enteritidis.

The Commission would stress that pathogenic bacteria should not be deliberately released into the
environment. During the last decade a coherent set of Community legislation, as referred to above, has
been created on the subject.

(1) OJ L 123, 24.4.1998.

(2001/C 89 E/050)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1550/00

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(18 May 2000)

Subject: Purchasing power parity (PPP) and its current use

In its reply to written question E-2218/99 (1) the Commission acknowledged that there is no legal basis in
Community law for the use of PPPs, and in its reply to written question E-0273/00 (2) it proved unable to
(cid:145)quote a single reference from economic theory which supports the practice of using PPP in order to
compare the GDP prices of countries which use the same currency(cid:146).

Nevertheless, in its reply to written question E-0272/00 (3) the Commission defended the use of PPPs on
the grounds of their widespread use by international
institutions, public administrations, universities,
research bodies, public and private undertakings, banking institutions, the media and individuals them-
selves.

In my written question E-0276/00 (4), I gave an example of the use of PPPs by a national administration,
and I could have quoted countless others such as the Economist(cid:146)s Big Mac, the Executive Quality Living
Reports produced by the Corporate Resources Group, the Bayerische Landesbank surveys and a number of
other academic or commercial studies.

20.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 89 E/53

The problem is that all these institutions arrive at totally different results from those produced by the
Commission, which in fact represents an additional and crucial reason for questioning the use of the PPPs
published by Eurostat.

Does the Commission not believe that the complete absence of harmony among the results obtained by
the various methods of calculating PPPs, together with the lack of legal basis and theoretical foundation,
constitutes a basic argument for discontinuing the use which it has made of PPPs up to now?

(1) OJ C 219 E, 1.8.2000, p. 124.
(2) OJ C 330 E, 21.11.2000, p. 114.
(3) OJ C 330 E, 21.11.2000, p. 113.
(4) OJ C 303 E, 24.10.2000, p. 170.

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(13 July 2000)

The Honourable Member cites three arguments for discontinuing the use of purchasing power parities
(PPPs) within the euro area: a lack of legal basis; an absence of harmony among the results of different
price surveys; and the lack of theoretical foundation of using PPPs. The Commission does not support
these arguments.

With regard to the first argument, the Commission(cid:146)s reply to the Honourable Member(cid:146)s Written Question
E-0272/00 (1) has indicated the regulations concerning structural policies which have been adopted by the
Council on the Commission(cid:146)s proposal and with the assent of the Parliament. These regulations oblige the
Commission to calculate and apply gross domestic product
(GDP) per capita in purchasing power
standards for all Member States and their regions. Furthermore, in the reply to the Honourable Member(cid:146)s
Written Question E-2218/99 (2)
the Commission supported a specific legal act setting up a stable
framework in which the current methodology and work underlying the PPPs would be collectively
accepted. This is the reason why in the next months the Commission will take an initiative in order to
reach this goal.

Regarding the second and third arguments, all price surveys (cid:129) although they may vary in methodology
and details (cid:129) have the common result that prices of non-traded goods (in particular housing and services)
are lower in countries with a lower GDP per capita and higher in countries with a higher GDP per capita.
This correlation has been confirmed for the Member States in a study recently published by the
Commission (3). The explanation for this phenomenon has been given by Balassa and Samuelson
(in 1964) and is mainly due to the lower wages in low-income countries. The main idea of PPPs is to
take account of this effect that the purchasing power is higher than suggested by exchange rates in
countries with lower prices for non-traded goods (and vice versa).

(1) OJ C 330 E, 21.11.2000, p. 113.
(2) OJ C 219 E, 1.8.2000, p. 124.
(3) European Commission: Market integration and differences in price levels between EU Member States; in: The EU

Economy (cid:129) 1999 Review (European Economy) Brussels/Luxembourg 1999.

(2001/C 89 E/051)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1557/00

by Lousewies van der Laan (ELDR) to the Commission

(11 May 2000)

Subject: Appointment of Ricardo Levi

to the post of Director of

the Forward Studies Unit at

the

Commission

On 3 May 2000 Mr Prodi, President of the European Commission, announced that Ricardo Levi would be
appointed to the post of Director of the Forward Studies Unit.

1. What procedure was followed for this appointment? Was the vacancy published? Did other
candidates apply? Was there no suitably qualified internal candidate available to fill the post?