WRITTEN QUESTION E-2257/01 by Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop (PSE) to the Commission. European Union Migrants' Forum.
Date: 2001-07-31
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Union, dismissal, fraud, fund (EU), international organisation

16.5.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 115 E/45

(2002/C 115 E/045)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2256/01

by Richard Balfe (NI) to the Council

(3 August 2001)

Subject: The return of the Aksum Obelisk to Ethiopia

Given that Article 37 of the Italian Peace Treaty, which became effective in September 1947, specified that
Italy should return within 18 months all loot taken from Ethiopia, and given that the Italo-Ethiopian
Agreement of 1997 laid down that the Aksum Obelisk, looted on Mussolini’s personal orders in 1937 and
erected in Rome to commemorate the ‘March on Rome’, would be returned during 1997, will the Council
raise with the Italian Foreign Ministry the matter of the return of the Obelisk and ask it to indicate when
the promised return can in fact be expected?

Could the Council also ask the Ministry to make a statement on the return of other articles looted from
Ethiopia and, in particular, when the Ethiopian pre-war National Archives, currently incorporated in Italian
state archives, and the pre-war Ethiopian aeroplane ‘Tsehai’, currently held in the Italian Aviation Museum,
will be returned?

Reply

(17 December 2001)

The particular questions raised by the Honourable Member regarding the Aksum Obelisk and other
Ethiopian cultural goods in Italy are outside the Community’s sphere of competence and would be better
dealt with bilaterally between the Ethiopian and Italian authorities.

However, the Council is aware of the importance of cultural issues in the context of cooperation between
Africa and the European Union. Specific reference is made to the problem of restitution of cultural goods
in the Cairo Plan of Action that emerged from the Africa-Europe Summit held in Cairo on 3 and 4 April
2000:

We pledge to accord importance to cultural cooperation between Africa and Europe as an integral
aspect of development.

With regard to cultural goods stolen or exported illicitly, we have taken note of the concerns of
African States and request senior officials of the bi-regional group to examine the legal and practical
consequences of further action in this area and prepare a report for assessment at ministerial level in
the framework of the follow-up mechanism, within reasonable time (1).

The issue of stolen or illicitly exported cultural goods in general was raised again at the mid-term EU-
Africa Ministerial Conference in Brussels on 11 October 2001. The Conference forms part of the process
initiated in Cairo in April 2000.

(1) 7678/00, point 125, page 15.

(2002/C 115 E/046)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2257/01

by Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: European Union Migrants’ Forum

(31 July 2001)

In November 2000 the Commission suspended funding for the European Union Migrants’ Forum under
budget line A-3040 owing to irregularities detected in the management of those funds.

C 115 E/46

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

16.5.2002

The members of the organisation’s staff, who are not responsible for the irregularities, are currently
unemployed, are owed several months’ wages and have not received any compensation for unfair
dismissal.

It is clear that the Migrants’ Forum is a fully independent legal organisation and that, consequently, the
Commission is in no way responsible for the commitments of this or any other organisation which
receives subsidies from the European Union. Nevertheless it is also true that these organisations exist
thanks to Community funding and that, as in this case or in other recent cases such as that of IRELA,
when irregularities are detected in the management of funds and the Commission is obliged to suspend
funding, people working for these organisations, who are not responsible for maladministration or the
misuse of funds, are faced with an extremely precarious situation. Given that these are international non-
profit-making organisations, it is virtually impossible for their staff to assert their rights before a tribunal.

Does the Commission not believe that the European Union cannot sit back and do nothing in the face of
such social injustice? Is the Commission studying ways of dealing with such situations? What does the
Commission think of the possibility of establishing a mechanism to allow the necessary funds to be
released so that the workers affected can receive the money owed to them, along with the appropriate
compensation? Would this be feasible from a legal and budgetary point of view? Would the Commission
be prepared to put such a proposal to the budgetary authority?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(10 October 2001)

The Commission is fully aware of the situation to which the Honourable Member refers and shares her
concern regarding the precarious situation in which this places the staff of the European Migrants’ Forum.

However, the Honourable Member herself makes the point that the Migrants’ Forum is an independent
legal entity and that the Commission is in no way responsible for its financial commitments, including to
its staff. The Commission would point out however, that it is possible for the former staff of this
organisation to make claims against the Forum under the legal system in which it was established.

it would not be justified in asking the
Since the Commission is not under a legal obligation to act,
budgetary authority to make what would, in effect, be ex gratia payments in this case and which might not
have been made in other comparable cases.

The Commission regrets that such situations might result in hardship for the individuals concerned.
However, it believes that its audit and control procedures for the grant of subsidies are sufficient to avoid
such situations from occuring in general. The Commission does not, therefore, consider it appropriate to
establish the type of mechanisms suggested by the Honourable Member.

(2002/C 115 E/047)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2266/01

by Gordon Adam (PSE) to the Commission

(31 July 2001)

Subject: Foot-and-mouth disease B Trading problems with EU applicant countries

Will the Commission indicate what steps it has taken and is proposing to take to ensure that restrictions
imposed by EU applicant countries on imports from those EU Member States currently or recently
suffering from outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease do not exceed the restrictions laid down in Decision
2001/356/EC (1) or other relevant EU Decisions, as amended?

(1) OJ L 125, 5.5.2001, p. 46.