WRITTEN QUESTION E-3938/00 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Council. Number of votes under QMV.
Date: 2000-12-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: decision-making, drafting of EU law, qualified majority

C 364 E/4

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.12.2001

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(22 June 2001)

The amounts allotted to the Objective 1 regions from the European Regional Development Fund over the
1994-1999 programming period can be found by clicking on (cid:145)What does Europe do for your country?(cid:146)
under (cid:145)Overview(cid:146) on site www.inforegio.cec.eu.int.

The outturn in terms of commitment is 100 %, all programmes being entirely committed in accordance
with the programming.
the outturn will only be known after the
programmes have been wound up, commencing in June 2001.

In terms of payments, however,

The corresponding figures for the financial instrument for fisheries guidance can be found by clicking on
(cid:145)Structural interventions for fisheries in Europe(cid:146) under (cid:145)Publications(cid:146) on site europa.eu.int/comm/fisheries.
The outturn in terms of commitment is 100 % once more.

(2001/C 364 E/005)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3938/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Council

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Number of votes under QMV

1. Will the Council give the figures in each year for the last five years for the number of votes or
decisions concerning legislation or other decisions which would, if voted upon, be subject to qualified
majority voting?

2. What proportion of all decisions are now taken by QMV?

3. What proportion of legislative decisions are taken by QMV?

Reply

(27 September 2001)

The Council is not in possession of the figures for each of the last five years for the number of votes or
decisions concerning legislation or other decisions which would, if voted upon, be subject to qualified
majority voting.

Statistics were produced for 1999, but only on the number of legislative acts. Those statistics show that 67
out of the 199 legislative acts adopted by the Council in 1999 had a legal basis requiring adoption by
unanimity. The remaining 132 acts adopted during that year had a legal basis enabling them to be adopted
by a qualified majority, which represents a proportion of 66,3 %.

Of those 132 legislative acts:

(cid:129) 104 were adopted without votes against or abstentions;

(cid:129) 28 were adopted with votes against or abstentions.

104 of those 132 legislative acts were adopted unopposed. This means that 67 + 104 = 171 out of a total
of 199 legislative acts were in fact adopted unopposed, which is about 85 %.

In this respect it should be remembered that qualified majority voting may in practice make it easier to
obtain all delegations(cid:146) agreement to a text, inasmuch as delegations which do not agree may be inclined to
vote in favour once they know they are going to be in a minority. It also strengthens the Commission(cid:146)s
power of amendment and may in addition favour the adoption of a different text from the one which
would have been approved if the legal basis had required unanimity.

20.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 364 E/5

As from January 2001 the monthly summaries of Council acts include references to the voting procedure
followed for the adoption of the acts by the Council (unanimity, qualified or simple majority). These
monthly overviews are published on the Council(cid:146)s website (http://ue.eu.int, under (cid:145)Transparency(cid:146) and
(cid:145)Summary of Council acts(cid:146)).

(2001/C 364 E/006)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-4069/00

by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Increase in Telecom subscription rate

According to Italian press reports, the European Commissioner responsible for competition, Mario Monti,
has asked the Italian telecommunications watchdog body (Autorit(cid:224) per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni
italiane) to increase the Telecom annual subscription rate for fixed telephony by at least 6 %, excluding
VAT and inflation.

This subscription generates a total income of around ITL 7 700 billion for Telecom Italia each year. It would
appear, on the basis of comparable purchasing power, to be the highest in Europe. However, with the
switch from a concessionary to a licensing system, the telephone subscription rate should, with a view to
guarding against distortions of competition, gradually fall rather than rise until it only covers the actual
cost of maintaining the fixed network.

The problem is that the investigations aimed at establishing the (cid:145)access deficit(cid:146) were conducted by a former
Ministry of Communications director, who had moved on to the watchdog body and was then recruited by
Telecom Italia.

In response to the Commissioner(cid:146)s request, two Italian consumer organisations (cid:129) Adusbef and Codacons
(cid:129) have submitted to the competent authorities a complaint questioning Mr Monti(cid:146)s right to impose such
an increase on an independent authority and asking whether his role should not be limited to making
representations to national governments.

In the light of the above, it would seem necessary to establish whether any member of the Commissioner(cid:146)s
office may be in a position of conflict of interest with respect to the request to the watchdog body to
increase the subscription rate.

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(2 May 2001)

Acting on a proposal by the Member of the Commission who was responsible for competition at the time,
the Commission decided in 1998 to initiate infringement proceedings against Italy, because that country
had not authorised Telecom Italia to rebalance its telephone tariffs. Article 4c of Directive 90/388/EEC, as
amended, provides that before the liberalisation of the market on 1 January 1998 the Member States must
allow telephone tariffs to be aligned on real costs. The purpose of this is to stop prices being held below
costs in some markets, which would deter investments by new entrants into these markets.

During September and October 2000, experts from the Italian telecommunications watchdog body
(AGCOM) and the Commission agreed on the cost of the service providing access of Telecom Italia. This
made it possible to calculate the necessary increase in the annual subscription rate in order to enable
Telecom Italia to generate sufficient revenue to cover the cost of this service. The purpose of the
Commission(cid:146)s action in relation to AGCOM was solely to remind it that if it did not permit such an
increase, the Commission would have no alternative but to refer the matter to the Court of Justice to find
that the Directive was being infringed. The Commission was obliged to refer the matter to the Court of
Justice if, after more than two years of proceedings, AGCOM still did not allow Telecom Italia to align its
annual subscription rate on the real cost. Since the Directive refers to alignment on the real costs of the
services concerned, it is not legitimate to make an international comparison.