WRITTEN QUESTION E-0570/01 by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Statement of Assurance for DG Transport and Energy.
Date: 2001-02-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Community budget, European Commission, European Court of Auditors, budgetary control, financial management, management accounting

18.9.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 261 E/147

(2001/C 261 E/168)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0567/01

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Statement of Assurance for DG Regional Policy

(27 February 2001)

At the meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Control of 7 February 2001, Commissioner Fischler stated
that the exact error rate in 1999 for financial transactions within DG Agriculture was 3,06 %.

In the spirit of cooperation and transparency between the European institutions, could the Commissioner
with special responsibility for Regional Policy provide a similar figure for financial transactions within that
Directorate-General? If not, why not?

(2001/C 261 E/169)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0568/01

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Statement of Assurance for DG Research

(27 February 2001)

At the meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Control of 7 February 2001, Commissioner Fischler stated
that the exact error rate in 1999 for financial transactions within DG Agriculture was 3,06 %.

In the spirit of cooperation and transparency between the European institutions, could the Commissioner
with special responsibility for Research provide a similar figure for financial transactions within that
Directorate-General? If not, why not?

(2001/C 261 E/170)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0569/01

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Statement of Assurance for DG Trade

(27 February 2001)

At the meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Control of 7 February 2001, Commissioner Fischler stated
that the exact error rate in 1999 for financial transactions within DG Agriculture was 3,06 %.

In the spirit of cooperation and transparency between the European institutions, could the Commissioner
with special responsibility for Trade provide a similar figure for financial
transactions within that
Directorate-General? If not, why not?

(2001/C 261 E/171)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0570/01

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Statement of Assurance for DG Transport and Energy

(27 February 2001)

At the meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Control of 7 February 2001, Commissioner Fischler stated
that the exact error rate in 1999 for financial transactions within DG Agriculture was 3,06 %.

C 261 E/148

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

In the spirit of cooperation and transparency between the European institutions, could the Commissioner
with special responsibility for Transport and Energy provide a similar figure for financial transactions
within that Directorate-General? If not, why not?

Joint answer
to Written Questions P-0553/01, E-0554/01, E-0555/01, E-0556/01,
E-0557/01, E-0558/01, E-0559/01, E-0560/01, E-0561/01, E-0562/01, E-0563/01, E-0564/01,
E-0565/01, E-0566/01, E-0567/01, E-0568/01, E-0569/01 and E-0570/01
given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(11 April 2001)

The Commission wishes to remind the Honourable Member that the Court of Auditors does not provide
an error rate in the framework of its Statement of Assurance for the general budget as it considers that it is
an oversimplification to gauge the success of the Commission(cid:146)s financial management on the basis of this
single indicator.

Thus the Court decided three years ago to stop the publication of a global error rate and to develop its
Statement of Assurance methodology in order to provide to the Discharge Authority with more detailed
descriptive information.

Moreover, the Court of Auditors has said on several occasions that if it was to generate error rates at a
lower level (eg. by sector or by Directorate general) from a general error rate, these would be wholly
misleading. The restricted number of transactions that the Court audits does not make it possible for it to
determine a valid error rate at this lower level.

Consequently, the Commission is not in a position to provide to the Honourable Member the requested
information.

(2001/C 261 E/172)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0572/01

by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(27 February 2001)

Subject: E-mail problems

The sending of electronic junk mail (e-mails which are completely useless to and unwanted by their
recipients, often containing viruses) is a major problem world-wide.

1.

2.

Does the Commission have data on the number of junk mails handled daily by the e-mail system?

Has it calculated the cost to users of dealing with junk mail?

3. What ideas does it intend to put forward for tackling the problem of junk mail?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(23 April 2001)

The Commission agrees that the sending of unsolicited e-mails causes important problems, to both users
and internet service providers (ISPs).

A study was commissioned by the Commission on the subject matter of unsolicited commercial
communications and data protection. This study was completed in January 2001 and provides useful
information on issues raised in the question (1). The study refers for instance to a likely capacity of
specialised companies to send in total 20 billion commercial e-mails per day. The study also indicates that
the cost for users would amount to around € 10 billion a year world-wide. It also mentions a clear shift