WRITTEN QUESTION E-3143/00 by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission. A discotheque at Auschwitz.
Date: 2000-10-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Poland, common foreign and security policy, crime against humanity, heritage protection, museum

22.5.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 151 E/79

Despite the constraints, however, a number of operations had either been carried out or were underway by
then: the study and local preparation phases, publication in the Official Journal of the pre-information
notice of contracts for some of the projects, and calls for proposals for local
initiatives in the four
countries coming under the programme.

Emergency aid worth € 7,15 million overall was granted to carry out initial operations following the floods
which struck vast areas of Venezuela in December 1999.

Immediately afterwards, the Commission asked the national government to submit a list of priority
operations to rebuild the disaster areas. Due to the lack of an overall rebuilding plan, the Commission
sent a team of experts to Venezuela in April to identify a package of clear priorities for action. The
Commission adopted a Working Paper on Venezuela on 28 September: (cid:145)Programme to support regions
affected by the floods of December 1999(cid:146) on the basis of the agreement between the Commission
delegation, embassies of the Member States and the national authorities, and the experts(cid:146) findings. It states
that the Commission plans to allocate € 30 million to the rebuilding work in Venezuela are an indication
of its commitment during the 2001 and 2002 financial years.

The programme is made up of two parts: a package of reconstruction aid in the state of Vargas, estimated
at € 10 million, (mainly operations to strengthen social policies for the benefit of the disaster victims) and
a prevention package, estimated at € 20 million, for the design and implementation of natural disaster
management programmes over a large area of the states of Falc(cid:243)n, Miranda and Yaracuy (a detailed risk
map, the setting-up of rapid warning systems, the production of land use plans, the construction of flood-
control structures, etc.).

The guidelines laid down in the March 1999 communication from the Commission to the Council and
Parliament (cid:145)towards a new European Union-Latin American partnership on the eve of the 21st century(cid:146) (1),
were to a large extent confirmed by the Rio Summit and remain valid.
In the coming weeks the
Commission intends to adopt a new communication on the follow-up to the Rio Summit. It aims to
define the general principles of the operations to be carried out by the Commission as its contribution to
implementation of the priorities established by the Summit. It does not call existing cooperation or the
continuation of a strategy recognising the specific characteristics of the sub-regions into question.

(1) COM(1999) 105 final.

(2001/C 151 E/089)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3143/00

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(6 October 2000)

Subject: A discotheque at Auschwitz

Press reports that authorisation has been given for a discotheque to open near Auschwitz have under-
standably prompted adverse reactions. It is inconceivable that a place of entertainment should be located in
an area which has become a memorial to the Holocaust. The local authorities should bear in mind that it
is recognised as such in the collective consciousness and avoid offending the memory of the victims and of
the suffering of millions of people, most of them Jews.

Is the Commission willing to express to the Polish Government:

1.

the Union(cid:146)s support for these legitimate concerns and

2.

its request for respect to be shown for a place whose name is engraved on the memory of the world
because of the tragedy of the Holocaust?

C 151 E/80

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

22.5.2001

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(9 November 2000)

The Commission demonstrated to all concerned, including the Polish government, its clear stance with
respect to the Holocaust and the events which took place, when the Commission President marked the
beginning of his term of office by visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau.

In addition the Commission monitors the progress made by Poland as it moves towards accession to the
Union, and is particularly attentive to both the establishment of adequate legislative frameworks and their
effective application.

In respect of the case raised by the Honourable Member, it has been noted by the Commission that in May
1999 in Poland legislation was adopted regarding the protection of former Nazi concentration camp sites.
This forbids public meetings, commercial activities and adjacent construction. It is understood that this
legislation clarifies the issue of the areas around the camps, by defining authoritatively the grounds of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau site and the surrounding buffer zone, which henceforth shall be preserved in
perpetuity as a memorial.

From the case raised, it appears that there were many other buildings associated with the functioning of
the camp networks and many of them are some distance away and even several kilometres from the main
sites.

To address such issues, and taking into consideration that such foundation legislation is in place, the most
appropriate approach would therefore be to first seek a remedy at the national level by the appropriate
means.

(2001/C 151 E/090)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3150/00

by Olle Schmidt (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 October 2000)

Subject: EU funding to combat child sex tourism

The Commission has repeatedly stated that action to combat child sex tourism is an important issue. The
Swedish section of ECPAT, the international organisation that works to combat the commercial sexual
exploitation of children, received funding from the Commission for the period November 1999 to October
2000 to enable it to draw up, along with the travel industry, a code of conduct to help combat child sex
tourism. The funding officially ends in October, but Commissioner Erkki Liikanen wrote in April 2000
that there were high expectations for the project, so that ECPAT assumed it would continue to receive
financial support for its project. In his letter, Commissioner Liikanen also stated that the Commission
would continue to give priority to measures designed to combat child sex tourism. Throughout the
summer, ECPAT tried to contact the Commission, albeit without success, to get confirmation that funding
would continue. On 5 September, however, ECPAT was told that its funding was to be discontinued.

Will the Commission therefore state:

1. How, and on the basis of what long-term plans, it prioritises the projects to be supported?

2. What contact it has had with the organisations during the current project?

3. How NGOs, which are often dependent on grants, are to be able to plan and carry out their activities
if it takes decisions on whether or not to continue funding at short notice (in this case, it took a
decision in September concerning a funding period due to start in November)?