WRITTEN QUESTION E-0992/01 by Geoffrey Van Orden (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Funding for Bulgaria.
Date: 2001-03-30
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Bulgaria, EU aid, accession to the European Union

C 318 E/172

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

13.11.2001

Accordingly, the Commission believes its proposal is in line with international law. Contacts with ICAO
representatives on this matter have given no reason to think there is any doubt as to its compatibility with
the Chicago Convention.

(1) Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing common rules in the field

of civil aviation and creating a European Aviation Safety Agency (COM(2000) 595 final).

(2001/C 318 E/185)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0990/01

by Emmanouil Bakopoulos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(30 March 2001)

Subject: EU delegations, representations and offices in non-member countries

The European Union(cid:146)s Interinstitutional Directory shows that a fair number of the EU delegations,
representations and offices in third countries do not have a head. Will the Commission say why these
posts remain vacant and what it intends to do to fill them?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(8 May 2001)

Vacancies at the level of Head of Delegation appear regularly as a result of the transfer or retirement of
officials in the External Service. This is a normal feature of any administration with a rotation requirement
for its staff. At present eight Delegations are without a Head of Delegation. Seven of these posts are in the
process of being filled. This, however, takes time. The selection procedure involves in depth interviews of
candidates at Director General level. At times specific publication for particular posts is needed. Selected
candidates then have to be confirmed by the Appointing Authority. Following that the nomination is
referred to the Council and only after that can agreement be sought from the accrediting country. From
request for publication to the Head of Delegation actually arriving in post can take several months.

For four of the seven posts referred to above the new Head of Delegation has already been nominated. In
the case of the eighth Delegation, Burundi, there is no proposal to fill the post at present.

(2001/C 318 E/186)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0992/01

by Geoffrey Van Orden (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(30 March 2001)

Subject: Funding for Bulgaria

What progress has been made towards complying with the request made by the European Parliament over
five months ago in its resolution of 4 October 2000 on Bulgaria(cid:146)s application for membership of the EU
(A5-0241/2000):
(cid:145)to provide Parliament with a detailed and comprehensive breakdown of all recent
funding to Bulgaria at the earliest possible opportunity, along with an assessment of the contribution of its
assistance programmes to the achievement of substantive economic and administrative progress in
Bulgaria(cid:146)?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(8 June 2001)

The Commission is sending direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat a detailed
description of the programming framework and the projects supported in Bulgaria under the Phare

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 318 E/173

programme since 1999 and under the Instrument for structural policies for pre-accession (ISPA) and the
Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD) programmes since their
inception in 2000.

There is a well-established system of monitoring and evaluation in place to assess the impact of ongoing
and completed projects supported by Community funds. Reports prepared by independent evaluators are
used to address and remedy weaknesses in project implementation and draw general lessons that can then
be applied when programming new assistance. Judging by these reports, the effectiveness with which
Bulgaria uses Community assistance is uneven. This often reflects weaknesses in the project implemen-
tation capacity of Bulgarian institutions. The Commission has responded to these weaknesses by more
carefully designing, and attaching stricter conditions to, newly programmed assistance.

When assessing the effectiveness of Community assistance to Bulgaria(cid:146)s pre-accession preparations, it is
difficult to distinguish between the contribution of Community-supported initiatives and those sponsored
by the complementary programmes provided by the international
institutions and bilateral
agencies.

financial

However, the Commission is encouraged by the broad direction of reform in Bulgaria. The authorities have
succeeded in stabilising the macroeconomic situation, adopting much of the Community acquis and
starting to address sensitive social
issues. Bulgaria has so far made good progress in the accession
negotiations. On the other hand, Bulgaria does not yet have a functioning market economy, the quality of
public administration (particularly the judiciary) and implementation of
the acquis is uneven, and
corruption remains a problem. These are the key issues on which Community assistance will focus in the
immediate future.

(2001/C 318 E/187)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0994/01

by Caroline Jackson (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(30 March 2001)

Subject: Application of the Landfill Directive

Does the Commission believe that it is realistic to expect Member States to comply with the Landfill
Directive (1999/31/EC (1)) when landfill acceptance criteria will not be adopted until April 2001?

(1) OJ L 182, 16.7.1999, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallstr(cid:246)m on behalf of the Commission

(29 May 2001)

Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste, must be transposed into national
law by Member States by 16 July 2001.

The Commission and the Member States are working on a uniform waste classification and acceptance
procedure.

The Directive takes into account that the uniform waste classification and acceptance procedure will not
enter into force on 16 July 2001 and provides general principles and a preliminary acceptance procedure
in its Annex II to be applied in the meantime.

For these reasons the Commission does not consider the difference in these dates as a possible problem for
the implementation of the Landfill Directive.