WRITTEN QUESTION E-1890/00 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Use of languages by the Commission in the Brussels Capital Region.
Date: 2000-06-16
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, EU research policy, European social policy, cultural pluralism

C 72 E/144

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.3.2001

At the specifically Community level, the Regulation of 29 May 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition
and enforcement of
judgments in matrimonial matters provides that rights of access and custody
recognised or granted by the authorities of one Member State to parents of children of both spouses in
the event of the dissolution of matrimonial ties are to be recognised and enforced in other Member States.
Further progress is foreseeable and one day decisions taken in another Member State, in particular with
regard to parental responsibility, may be enforced promptly and without formalities, albeit subject to
guarantees.

Rights of custody and access are determined by the competent national authorities acting under the
Community rules, international instruments or international private law. It is for each Member State to
decide if and how the right of custody or access is to be granted to one or other of the parents and what
civil or criminal penalties are to be applied should one of the parents fail to respect these rights.

(2001/C 72 E/180)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1890/00

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(16 June 2000)

Subject: Use of languages by the Commission in the Brussels Capital Region

In the new contracts of the European Commission Research Directorates General Shared Cost RTD CPF
Forms Electra A6 for shared-cost R&D projects under the Fifth Framework Programme (1999-2000), the
Commission uses only the address Rue de la Loi (cid:129) Bruxelles. This gives the misleading impression that the
19 Brussels communes are French-speaking. According to the Constitution of the Belgian Federation, these
communes form part of the bilingual Brussels Capital Region.

1. Will the Commission and its departments in future use both the Dutch and French addresses for their
correspondence, in view of the bilingual status of the 19 communes in the Brussels Capital Region? If not,
why do the Commission and its departments refuse to acknowledge the bilingual character of the
communes concerned by using both the Dutch and French-language addresses in their correspondence?

2. Will the Commission and its departments in future use both the Dutch and French addresses for their
correspondence in order to avoid displaying any preference for the Dutch-speaking or the French-speaking
community in the Brussels Capital Region? If not, why do the Commission and its departments
demonstrate their preference for the French-speaking community by using only French-language addresses
in their correspondence?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(28 July 2000)

The Commission acknowledges the bilingual status of the boroughs within the metropolitan Brussels
region. The Commission(cid:146)s headed notepaper in Brussels gives the address in both French and Dutch where
the heading is in a language other than those two. The rules applies not only to mail but also to any other
printed matter or publication.

Those rules were covered by an instruction sent out to the (Commission(cid:146)s) departments on 6 March 1995
and have also been incorporated into the Manual of Procedures (cf. Item 17.5.2.).

The example quoted by the Honourable Member was due to an error. The Commission has taken action to
remind the departments concerned of the abovementioned rules and to ensure that this error is corrected
in the next publication.