WRITTEN QUESTION E-0600/01 by Heide Rühle (Verts/ALE) and Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Forwarding of highly confidential information by the Commission.
Date: 2001-03-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, confidentiality, dissemination of EU information, framework agreement, interinstitutional relations (EU), parliamentary question

C 318 E/82

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

13.11.2001

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(16 May 2001)

1., 2. and 3.
The Commission does not collect or maintain any data on the basis of ethnic origin in
relation to its staff. The Commission is not in a position, therefore, to indicate what percentage of its
workforce comes from ethnic minorities, or what percentage in the top three grades of seniority comes
from these groups.

There are no rules, written or otherwise, which exclude members of ethnic minorities from any
4.
position or level of seniority. Staff Regulations expressly provide that officials are entitled to equal
treatment without reference, direct or indirect, to their racial origins.

5.
The Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in Vienna was established by Council Regulation
No 1035/97 of 2 June 1997 (1). Its primary objective is to provide the Community and its Member States
with objective, reliable and comparable data on the phenomena of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism,
in order to help Governments when they take action or determine measures within their respective spheres
of competence.

The Centre is an independent body ruled by a Management Board composed of independent persons
appointed by each Member State, by the European Parliament and by the Council of Europe.
A Commission representative also sits on the Board. A Director appointed by the Management Board for
a renewable period of four years heads the Centre.

The Centre(cid:146)s revenue is provided by a subsidy from the Community, entered under a specific heading in
the general budget of the European Communities (Commission(cid:146)s section); for 2001 the budget line in
question is B5-809 and the budget is 5,3 Million €.

As is the case for the Commission, the Centre does not collect or maintain any data on the basis of ethnic
origin in relation to its staff. The staff of the Centre is subject to the Staff Regulations mentioned above.

6.
In the context of Reform, the Commission intends to give greater profile to the recruitment of
members of ethnic minorities to its staff (2). As Member States are the principal source of candidates, the
Commission proposes, with the aid of the Member States, to determine how to increase ethnic diversity at
recruitment stage. Access to future competitions by minority communities will also be improved by
publicity focused at
increased contact with minority groups and
recruitment sources in the Member States.

regional and local newspapers,

7.
In relation to elections for the European Parliament, the Honourable Member is invited to refer to the
Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Directive
93/109/EC (3), and the Communication from the Commission on the application of the Directive for the
June 1999 (4), where the principles governing participation are
European Parliament elections of
enunciated. Clearly, political parties which select candidates for Parliamentary elections have the relevant
decision making powers on issues such as the character, qualifications, gender, age and ethnic origin of
candidates.

(1) OJ L 151, 10.6.1997.
(2) See Consultative Document on Equal Opportunities (SEC/(2000) 2085/4, adopted by the Commission on

29 November 2000.

(3) COM(97) 731 final of 07.01.1998.
(4) COM(2000) 843 final of 18.12.2000.

(2001/C 318 E/085)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0600/01

by Heide R(cid:252)hle (Verts/ALE) and Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Forwarding of highly confidential information by the Commission

(1 March 2001)

Under the framework agreement of 6 July 2000 between Parliament and the Commission, the Commission
can provide selected officers or bodies of Parliament with certain information classified by the Commission
as highly confidential, which may not be passed on to other Members of Parliament.

13.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 318 E/83

Can the Commission provide a list of all the cases in which it has made use of this procedure and indicate
in each specific case to which of Parliament(cid:146)s officers or bodies confidential information was provided and
what it was about.

Is the Commission aware that this procedure involving the provision of specific information to individual
officers or bodies is in breach of Parliament(cid:146)s Rules of Procedure, which stipulate that confidential
documents and information forwarded to Parliament must be examined by the parliamentary committee
responsible and must be made available to all committee members for this purpose?

Can the Commission make available on a confidential basis copies of the notes and documents forwarded
under this procedure?

Can the Commission provide a copy of the internal rules now in force for answering Written Question
pursuant to Article 197 of the EC Treaty? To what extent were these rules changed to take account of the
provisions of the framework agreement?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(24 April 2001)

The Commission does not have a centralised list of all the confidential documents or information supplied
to Parliament in response to requests under Annex III of the framework agreement of 6 July 2000. The
Commission takes the view that it is for each department to implement the framework agreement correctly
and has produced a guide to assist them in doing so. The replies to Parliament(cid:146)s requests for confidential
documents or information are, in the first instance, handled on a decentralised basis by the department
responsible for the subject in question.

The Commission does not agree with the Honourable Members(cid:146) interpretation of Annex VII, point 3, of
Parliament(cid:146)s Rules of Procedure (14th edition), to the effect that this provision requires confidential
documents to be circulated to all members of the parliamentary committee responsible. The Commission
such information to be made available to the members of
believes
a parliamentary committee, but does not stipulate this as a requirement. It does not, therefore, see any
conflict between this provision and the framework agreement.

this provision allows

that

Several other parliamentary questions have sought to obtain from the Commission the documents sent to
Parliament under the terms of the framework agreement. The Commission would therefore refer the
Honourable Members to the answers to Questions E-3240/00, P-3478/00, E 4072/00, P-203/01, E-539/01
and P-571/01 by Ms Stauner.

A copy of the internal rules on the preparation of replies to parliamentary questions will be sent directly to
the Honourable Members and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat. These rules were not amended following the
conclusion of the framework agreement, for the reasons explained by the Commission in its reply to
Questions P-203/01 and E-539/01 and in paragraphs 49, 50 and 51 of the Order of the President of the
Court of First Instance of 15 January 2001 in Case T-236/00 R, Gabriele Stauner and Others v. European
Parliament and Commission.

(2001/C 318 E/086)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0601/01

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 March 2001)

Subject: Racism and xenophobia in the Union and applicant countries

Europe has experienced a resurgence of racism and xenophobia in recent years.

The EU founded the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia based in Vienna, which
receives funds from the Community budget and draws up studies on racism and xenophobia in the
Member States of the Union. The Centre, however, remains unknown to the public at large, while its
practical contribution to combating these phenomena is negligible.