WRITTEN QUESTION P-3674/00 by Herman Schmid (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Public access to the work of the Article 133 Committee.
Date: 2000-11-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: World Trade Organisation, access to EU information, trade agreement (EU)

C 163 E/190

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2001

Many European associations and voluntary organisations have likewise taken a considerable and firm
interest in the matter: this year the Commission(cid:146)s technical committee has selected a grand total of 415
projects.

Given that Italy as yet has no national centre to monitor the social evil of paedophilia and promote
practical initiatives with a view to training staff to support children who are victims of violence, together
with their families, can the Commission say how many and which of the 415 projects selected were
submitted by Italian partners and have been given final approval?

During the final selection, what criteria were used to choose those projects?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(5 January 2001)

For the year 2000, the Commission received 415 proposals under the Daphne programme. Amongst
those, 308 were eligible. After evaluation, 47 projects were selected for funding, for a total amount of
€ 4 590 045.

The evaluation was based on the assessment of
the following elements: relevance to the Daphne
programme(cid:146)s objectives; clarity and pertinence of the project(cid:146)s objectives; usefulness of the expected
results; appropriateness and feasibility of approach, methodology and timeframe; Suitability and experience
of partners; European added value; dissemination of results, lessons learnt, acquired know-how; planning
of follow-up and sustainability; value for money.

In addition to the individual merit of the proposal, the final selection should take into account an
appropriate equilibrium between the target groups (children, young people and women), the duration of
the projects (1, 2 or 3 years) and the geographical spread of the projects to reach an optimal European
added value.

Amongst the 415 proposals received, 111 (26,7 %) were promoted by an Italian organisation; 94 out of
these 111 were eligible. The final selection of 47 projects includes 5 projects lead by an Italian
organisation. Furthermore, amongst the 361 organisations involved in all the selected projects, 47 (13 %)
are Italians.

(2001/C 163 E/221)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3674/00

by Herman Schmid (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Public access to the work of the Article 133 Committee

(22 November 2000)

One of the proposals for the Nice Summit is to amend Article 133 of the Treaty of Amsterdam (EU) so
that, in the negotiations on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements on intellectual property
(TRIPS) and services (GATS), the Council would be able to act by majority decision. It is also being
proposed that the Commission alone should be allowed to conduct all negotiations in the WTO. The
governments of the Member States would be allowed to follow the negotiations on the spot and convey
their views to the Commission during the negotiations. If any of the three alternatives is adopted, all WTO
negotiations, and not only those on the trade in goods, would fall within the Commission(cid:146)s sphere.

The great threat is the absence of public or political debate on the matter, for which the democratic deficit
in the EU is largely to blame. A group of officials, the (cid:145)Article 133 Committee(cid:146) is preparing and dealing
with trade matters on behalf of the Commission. It is practically impossible to keep track of its work as it
operates behind closed doors. For example, it would be interesting to know how much of the Commis-
sion(cid:146)s negotiating brief for the Seattle meeting was unknown to the Member State parliaments and the
general public before the WTO meeting.

How does the Commission intend to make public the documents of the Article 133 Committee and other
preparatory official working parties in the EU? What public access is there to the work of the Article 133
Committee today?

6.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 163 E/191

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(20 December 2000)

The proposal made by the Commission at this Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) to extend the scope of
Article 133 is intended to ensure that the Community can effectively defend common interests in
international trade negotiations.

Although the Commission already acts as negotiator in all World Trade Organisation (WTO) areas, the
option of taking decisions by a majority vote is essential for an effective trade policy. It is also consistent
with the general approach taken by the Commission and the Parliament that qualified majority should be
the rule and unanimity the exception.

Democratic accountability is ensured through the role of the governments in the Council, themselves
accountable to their national parliaments, in adopting negotiation directives and concluding international
trade agreements. However, the Commission agrees with the Honourable Member that this needs to be
complemented by parliamentary control at the European level. It has therefore proposed to enhance the
role of the European Parliament substantially in all aspects of trade policy. This would not only increase
the accountability of trade policy, but also its efficiency because our trading partners would know that the
Commission negotiates with the full backing of the democratically elected representatives of European
citizens.

Already within the current legal framework, the Commission is firmly committed to enhancing transpar-
ency and public access in the trade policy debate. This applies first and foremost to the relations between
the Commission and the Parliament.

trade and his senior officials participate regularly in parliamentary
The Commissioner for External
discussions on the whole range of trade policy issues. The Commission is also engaged in a regular
dialogue with organisations of civil society on issues relating to the WTO agenda.

As regards the 133 Committee the Honourable Member refers to, this is a sub-group of the Council whose
role it is to advise the Commission in the conduct of negotiations. On the specific question of access to
Article 133 documents, the Commission would like to point out that making available the official
documents of the 133 Committee does not lie within its responsibilities as those documents are produced
by the Council Secretariat. Concerning documents transmitted by the Commission to the 133 Committee,
the Commission wrote to the President of the Industry, external trade, research and energy committee on
20 January 2000, agreeing to transmit to the Parliament significant documents sent by the Commission to
the 133 committee, as well as other important reports established by the Commission. Documents of a
more sensitive nature are transmitted as (cid:145)confidential(cid:146) or (cid:145)restricted(cid:146) documents. A large number of
documents are, however, distributed as public documents and these are posted on the Directorate General
Trade website.

Public documents include the near totality of Community submissions to the WTO, as well as discussion
papers concerning the Community New Round strategy.

it is worth noting that the Community has also been in the lead in arguing for a policy of

Finally,
improving public access to WTO documents.

(2001/C 163 E/222)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3680/00

by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(29 November 2000)

Subject: European milk production

Now that we are six months into the 2000/2001 milk year, could the Commission give details of the
figures which the different Member States have been supplying and the corresponding year-end projec-
tions?