WRITTEN QUESTION E-1848/01 by Angelika Niebler (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Use of geoinformation in the Member States.
Date: 2001-06-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, cartography, data collection, database, geographical information system, information processing, research project

20.12.2001

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 364 E/217

(2001/C 364 E/237)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1845/01

by Karin Riis-Jłrgensen (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Breaches of Community rules in the Netherlands

(26 June 2001)

Further to my Question P-0843/01 (1) and the Commission(cid:146)s answer, I would ask a supplementary question
concerning the corresponding figures for the Netherlands.

With regard to possible breaches of Community rules, will the Commission provide details of instances in
which the Netherlands has drafted legislation and taken decisions which have ultimately had to be
reworked at the request of the Commission?

Where there were differences between Dutch legislation and Community rules, was it possible to resolve
those inconsistencies bilaterally or was it ever necessary to take matters to the court?

(1) OJ C 350 E, 11.12.2001, p. 49.

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(31 July 2001)

Further to its answer to the Honourable Member(cid:146)s Written Question P-0843/01, the Commission, while
reminding the Honourable Member that there is no means of obtaining the specific data requested, can
report that between 1979 and 2000 some 1 750 infringement proceedings were initiated against the
Netherlands and that during this period the European Court of Justice ruled on 32 infringement cases, 27
of its judgments being for the Commission. Nearly 200 infringement proceedings against the Netherlands
are currently in motion.

Nearly 60 % of infringement proceedings related to failure to notify national measures to transpose
Community directives, 10 % to transposal measures that did not comply with obligations under the
directives and nearly 30 % to incorrect application of Community law, whether general or individual. It is
chiefly in the last type of case (incorrect application) that the Commission may call on the Member State
concerned to amend its rules: the other categories (failure to notify and failure to comply with obligations)
relate to the obligation to transpose Community directives properly. Finally, it should be noted that some
60 % of these cases were shelved even before a letter of formal notice had been sent, as the complaints
proved to be without foundation.

(2001/C 364 E/238)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1848/01

by Angelika Niebler (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Use of geoinformation in the Member States

(26 June 2001)

Geoinformation (geographical and spatial data describing the features of a particular country) form an
essential part of the knowledge available in modern information and communications science.
It is
required at all levels of administration, the economy, science and by the public at large. It is the basis for
planning in numerous fields, such as for infrastructure projects in the energy, water and telecommuni-
cations sectors, waste management, telematics, environmental protection and nature conservation, and in
the insurance industry. Geoinformation is an increasingly important commodity worldwide. Its availability
is a crucial factor in taking decisions on location and investment. The USA spends USD 7 billion a year on
developing geodata infrastructure.

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20.12.2001

To what extent does the Commission monitor practice and developments in the Member States in
transfer to interested individuals

1.
relation to the collection and compilation of geodata and their
(data access)?

In the Commission(cid:146)s view, would it not be necessary,

in order to create a single market for
2.
geoinformation, to lay down Community-wide minimum criteria to establish transparent procedures for
the collection, compilation and transfer of geodata?

3.
In the Commission(cid:146)s view, should there be an improvement in cooperation between the Member
States(cid:146) agencies responsible for the management of geodata? To what extent could Community funds be
used for that purpose?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(18 September 2001)

To meet its internal needs, the Commission has set up a geographical reference database (GISCO)
1.
accessible to all
its departments and used by the Joint Research Centre at Ispra and the European
Environment Agency. This database contains topographical and thematic data of general interest at scales
of between 1:100 000 and 1:10 000 000. The data come from various sources. The contours of the local
administrative units were harmonised and provided by cartographic agencies, which have set up a structure
(Eurogeographics (cid:129) http://www.eurogeographics.org) entrusted with coordinating and designing European
products (metadata systems, topographical reference bases, etc.).

Apart from that activity, the Commission neither monitors nor intervenes in the capture and collection of
geographical information in the Member States.

2. and 3.
The Commission is currently running a series of initiatives that are contributing in different
ways to supporting and promoting Geographic Information (GI), and that in the medium term should lead
to the setting-up of a European Geographic Information Infrastructure.

Two Community programmes, Information Society Technologies (IST), in the more general framework of
the Fifth Research, Technological Development and Demonstration framework programme, and eContent,
European Digital Content on Global Networks, one of the implementations of the eEurope initiative,
support activities in the field of technological research and production, dissemination and use of European
digital content. Both are targeting in a specific way Geographic Information, with particular regard to
issues like metadata, interoperability, standards, reference data, access and use of data. The IST programme
has planned a specific call for proposals on the (cid:145)Use of Geographic Information(cid:146); selected projects will run
and operate during the coming years, significantly contributing, together with the currently active ones, to
the setting up of a European GI (cid:145)vision(cid:146). The eContent programme, covering the period 2001-2004, will
also make a contribution, through the selected projects, to improving the access to and exploitation of
public sector information.

A planned Communication from the Commission, the follow-up to the Green Paper on (cid:145)Public Sector
Information: a key resource for Europe(cid:146) (1), adopted on 20 January 1999, will define European initiatives
and frameworks for Geographic Information seen as a part of the more general Public Sector Information.
(cid:145)eEurope 2000: creating an EU framework for the exploitation of Public Sector
The Communication,
Information(cid:146), will build on the reactions to the above-mentioned Green Paper, and on the experience of the
past two years, a co-ordinated set of actions including proposals for a legislative framework on the
exploitation of Public Sector Information, an updating of the policies of the Community Institutions on the
exploitation of Community information, and the setting up of a Working Group to promote Digital Public
Data. The Communication is still under discussion, and this discussion includes a thorough analysis of the
role that the Commission has to play, taking into consideration its coordination role on the one hand and
respect for the subsidiarity principles on the other.

More specifically, some legislative initiatives set
Commission by Member States of geographic data. Currently applied to specific domains
environment), this framework contributes to the definition of European common rules.

rules for the collection and transmission to the
(e.g.

Finally, the Commission itself has established since end 1999 an internal inter-service group for the use of
(cid:145)to co-ordinate the use of Geographic
Geographic Information in the Commission, COGI. Its mandate,

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Information within the Commission services to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of European
policy monitoring that require a spatial analysis of the European territory at European and global level(cid:146),
while being primarily concerned with the Commission(cid:146)s internal needs, can clearly contribute to setting up
the framework for a European Spatial Data Infrastructure. Among its decisions, the adoption of a common
metadata standard and a single reference system can be considered as the first steps in the direction of
defining an integrated Geographic Information Landscape for Europe.

(1) COM(98) 585 final.

(2001/C 364 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1885/01

by Marco Pannella (TDI) to the Commission

(21 June 2001)

Subject: Montagnard tribes in Vietnam

In February 2001 the Vietnamese Government deployed tanks, helicopters and over 13 regiments of
soldiers into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to quell demonstrations by Christian Montagnard hill tribes.
These indigenous hill tribes were protesting over the arrest of two of their church leaders as well as years
of religious persecution and confiscation of their ancestral lands. The International Commission of Jurists
(Australian section) distributed a report in February 2001 concluding that since 1975, Vietnam has
the Montagnards, namely torture, arbitrary arrest,
committed gross human rights abuses against
sterilisation policies that violate women(cid:146)s rights, forced relocation and expropriation from their traditional
lands and increased repression of religious freedom.

Reports indicate the indigenous Montagnard population are now being terrorised by security forces. The
situation has deteriorated to such an extent that Montagnard refugees are fleeing to Cambodia with
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Refugees International and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees calling for urgent action to protect them, as Vietnam has offered (cid:145)bounties(cid:146) for
their capture and return. In June 2001, martial law and a media blackout in the region continues. Vietnam
has further cordoned off the region in an attempt to halt refugees.

Has the Commission already investigated the reports of human rights violations facing the Montagnard
population inside Vietnam(cid:146)s Central Highlands and the potential
for a humanitarian crisis if more
Montagnards are forced to flee as refugees? Has the Commission made the provision of aid and trade to
Vietnam contingent on the Vietnamese Government complying with international human rights law?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(13 July 2001)

The European Community-Vietnam Co-operation Agreement, which was signed in 1995, stated in its first
Article that respect for human rights and democratic principles is the basis of this co-operation. The
Commission, together with the Member States represented in Vietnam, therefore monitors closely human
rights developments in Vietnam as part of the policy of the Union to encourage and support the continued
commitment of the Government of Vietnam to progress in the field of human rights. The Commission also
participates with the Member States in all dØmarches to the Government of Vietnam on Human Rights
issues.

The disturbances in the Central Provinces of Gia Lai and Dac Lac in early February 2001 were the subject
of a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. Thousands of members of ethnic
minorities were reported to have taken part in demonstrations, some of which led to violence, with groups
of protesters blocking a national highway and attacking a post office and telephone switchboard and other
public buildings during four days of unrest. Police and military forces, including helicopters, were deployed