WRITTEN QUESTION P-2535/01 by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Submission of the results of analyses concerning adulterated butter.
Date: 2001-09-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, butter, competence of the Member States, food contamination, fraud, judicial investigation, qualitative analysis

C 147 E/26

Official Journal of the European Communities

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20.6.2002

Friesland, Catalonia, the Basque Country and South Tyrol (Alto Adige), and that such positive examples are
now relevant for example in the case of the southern fringes of Slovakia, the northern fringes of Serbia,
central Romania and north-western Macedonia?

4.
Does it regard a situation such as that now unfolding in Chroscicy (cf. Question E-2519/01) as a
good example of how future EU Member States should treat the rights of peoples who constitute a
majority regionally or locally and use a minority language?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2519/01 and E-2520/01
given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(6 December 2001)

In relation to the case mentioned by the Honourable Member, the Commission has no information to
indicate a failure to implement Community law or a serious and persistent breach within the meaning of
Article 7 (ex Article F.1) of the Treaty on European Union. The Commission refers the Honourable
Member to Article 149 (ex Article 126) of the EC Treaty, according to which each Member State is
responsible for the organisation of its education system and for linguistic diversity. The Commission would
also point to the efforts made to promote linguistic diversity, especially through the European Year of
Languages, and the Community’s contribution to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while
respecting their national and regional diversity, in accordance with Article 151 (ex Article 128) of the EC
Treaty.

For further details, the Honourable Member is referred to the Commission’s answer to Written Question
E-2538/01 from Mr Modrow (1) on the same subject.

(1) See page 27.

(2002/C 147 E/025)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2535/01

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 September 2001)

Subject: Submission of the results of analyses concerning adulterated butter

Until mid-2000, members of the Italian mafia were involved in the large-scale adulteration of butter,
adding animal and vegetable fats and chemical substances to it before marketing it through Belgian,
German, French and Italian firms. It is believed that a total of 100 000 tonnes of adulterated butter was
produced and that it was mainly used in bakery products. Following the discovery of the fraud, some
200 tonnes of what was left of the adulterated butter was seized in Belgium, France and Italy. The Member
State concerned were called upon to carry out chemical analyses in order to clarify whether there were any
risks to health.

In a letter of 17 August 2001, the German Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture
informed me that the results of the analyses Belgium, France and Italy had been asked to carry out had not
yet been presented to the Standing Veterinary Committee and could not be inspected or evaluated by the
Federal Government.

Will the Commission state why these findings have still not been submitted?

Will it say what steps it has taken, or proposes to take, in order to make the Member States concerned
submit the results of the analyses?

Will it indicate the findings on which it was actually basing itself when, in the 2000 annual report on the
fight against fraud (1), it wrote that, ‘so far, the analyses conducted by the experts on the seized goods have
not established any direct hazard for the consumers’ health’?

Will it provide the names and indicate the official positions of the experts it referred to and present copies
of the results of the analyses it mentioned?

(1) COM(2001) 255, p. 25.

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(22 October 2001)

We would refer the Honourable Member to the Commission’s answer to her written question E-2210/01.

With regard to the submission of results of analyses of adulterated butter, the Commission would point
out to the Honourable Member that these data are an integral part of investigation proceedings in France
and Italy and therefore cannot be made public. The analyses undertaken by the Belgian authorities revealed
that there were no polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), organochloric compounds or heavy metals present in the
samples of adulterated butter stored on their territory. However, the Belgian judicial authorities, acting on
a request
to
confidentiality in the context of the investigations.

for judicial assistance from the Italian authorities, have also made their data subject

At a meeting of the Standing Veterinary Committee on 12 September 2001, the Commission reminded the
Member States of the need to provide it with all available information on the results of analyses of
adulterated butter as soon as their respective judicial procedures allowed this.

In its Annual Report 2000 E Protection of the Communities’ Financial Interests and the Fight Against
Fraud (1), according to which ‘So far, the analyses conducted by the experts on the seized goods have not
established any direct hazard for the consumers’ health’, the Commission used a wording taken from a
press release of 19 December 2000 from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). The conclusions of the
national authorities available at the time were the basis for this.

The Commission would ask the Honourable Member to address any requests concerning documents
relating to ongoing judicial procedures, or concerning the experts involved, to the above-mentioned
national judicial authorities.

(1) COM(2001) 255 final.

(2002/C 147 E/026)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2538/01

by Hans Modrow (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(19 September 2001)

Subject: Protection of minority rights

In the Free State of Saxony, it appears to be the intention of the Land Government to close a Sorbian
secondary school, a measure which would violate the right of the Sorbian people to promote their Slavic
language and to protect their identity.

1.
The Commission has asked countries applying for accession to resolve their minority problems.
What are the specific criteria according to which the Commission assesses the position as regards minority
rights in the applicant countries?

Do those criteria also apply to current Member States? What form of penalties does the Commission

2.
impose for violations and infringements thereof?

3.
Are there plans, at the next intergovernmental conference, to deal in a concrete way with the issue of
minority rights, for example in the form of the drawing up of a binding Charter on the rights of ethnic
minorities and small peoples laying down the collective right to linguistic and cultural institutions such as
schools?

4.
How does the Commission regard, from the point of view of minority rights in Europe, the fact that,
in the German federal Land of Saxony, the home of the autochthonous Sorbian minority, Sorbian-speaking
schools are being closed against the express wishes of parents, Sorbian communities and Domowina, the
body representing the Sorbian people?