WRITTEN QUESTION P-3394/01 by Marianne Eriksson (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. ADAPT.
Date: 2001-12-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, EU initiative, European Commission, European Social Fund, equal treatment, exchange of information, information technology, report, vocational training

6.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/227

Such jobs are intended to last for a short period, to save companies the trouble of having to employ
someone on a permanent basis. However, some temporary contracts are in fact open-ended (which is
clearly contrary to the definition of temporary work itself and runs counter to the need for a flexible
labour market).

Temporary employment agencies often operate in more than one European country and provide mainly
young people with job opportunities in foreign companies and multinationals, some of which involve
interesting posts in foreign countries. Given the differences between the various countries in terms of
social security systems, contractual standards, health and pension systems and the recognition of academic
qualifications, how does the Commission intend to prevent this growing market from becoming too much
of a good thing for agencies rather than a real opportunity for workers and companies?

Does it intend to propose the introduction of Community provisions to regulate the activities of this
atypical type of employer, tighten up the controls on such agencies’ activities already existing at national
level and lay down minimum safety standards to protect workers?

Does it intend to place a limit on the number of workers each agency may have on its books at any one
time?

Does it intend to ensure that proper checks are run on the training and further training programmes
which agencies must organise for workers, using the 4 % of wages which * in Italy at least * must be set
aside for specific initiatives?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(30 January 2002)

Temporary work is an employment model which has been growing rapidly in Europe for the last ten
years. It may be described as a three-way relationship between a worker, a company acting as a temporary
employment agency and a user company. The agency, which is generally the employer, makes this worker
available to the user company to work there under its supervision for a fixed period. In principle, all social
legislation applies also to temporary work.

In light of the development of this new employment relationship, the Commission has introduced various
legislative initiatives since 1982 in order to regulate these practices. To date, only one of these initiatives
has come to something, with the adoption in 1991 of the Directive on the health and safety of temporary
workers (1).

to regulate temporary work was very recent:

following consultations with the
The latest attempt
Commission, the social partners at European level held negotiations on this issue from May 2000 to May
2001. Unfortunately, at the end of the period allocated, the social partners had to concede that they were
unable to reach an agreement.

(1) Council Directive 91/383/EEC of 25 June 1991 supplementing the measures to encourage improvements in the
safety and health at work of workers with a fixed-duration employment relationship or a temporary employment
relationship * OJ L 206, 29.7.1991.

(2002/C 134 E/241)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3394/01

by Marianne Eriksson (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(6 December 2001)

Subject: ADAPT

During the last budgetary period the Community initiative ADAPT was a transnational development
programme co-financed by the European Social Fund to the amount of € 1600 million, with a further
€ 1 700 million in funding being provided in the Member States. A sum of nearly € 3 400 million was
spent by 3 680 project organisers.

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6.6.2002

Projects included lifelong learning, skills development, IT at the workplace, equality, etc. With all due
respect to follow-up, annual reports, and final reports, the most important point is that the lessons are
learnt and the results and findings of the projects should be applied even after the projects have been
completed.

It has been said that the Commission did not collect or organise the results produced by the projects. It
would rather seem that when EUROPS, the European support body working on the Commission’s behalf,
closed down, the material collected was destroyed.

Is this a fair description of events? How will the Commission ensure that this does not happen again and
where is the discarded information to be found?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(28 January 2002)

The Commission has indeed made significant efforts to exchange, disseminate, and evaluate the results of
the ADAPT Community Initiative.

In this context, the Commission provided tools and platforms for the exchange of experience, as well as
technical support, notably through its Technical Assistance Office Europs, which assisted Member States
and the Commission:

* in preparing the ADAPT transnational week on work organisation, organised in 25 locations
throughout Europe in October 2000, which was used as a forum to collect and present training
products as well as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) software;

* in supporting the management of ‘Thematic Focus Groups’, with the aim of stimulating European-level

activities that are based on Member States’ thematic experience and results;

* in drafting a set of principal lessons from ADAPT projects presented in the framework of the four

pillars of the employment strategy;

* in producing a series of thematic reports (Innovation series), complemented by descriptions of good
practice project examples, and by a data base with reference data to all ADAPT projects (now on the
Commission’s EQUAL website).

When Europs closed down in June 2000, all relevant documentation was transferred to the Commission,
and the electronic project database was transferred to the Europa-server (http://europa. eu. int/comm/equal/
index_en. html). The rest of Europs’ archive, including a large number of duplicate or outdated files and
project related documents, was properly disposed of.

This approach is now being pursued further by the Member States and the Commission who are
continuing to build on the experience of ADAPT and Employment. The Commission has asked Member
States to draw together examples of products and methodologies which work best under ADAPT and
Employment, with specific focus on the outcomes that they consider as relevant for a European-wide
to be organised by the
dissemination. Good practice case studies will be shown at a major event
Commission in mid-2002, with a view to disseminating what should be learnt
from the previous
Community Initiatives and what could inform the content of some EQUAL activities.

It should nevertheless be stressed that the transfer of ADAPT results to a broader range of users is first and
foremost the responsibility of the Member States. This follows from the principle of subsidiarity, according
to which experiments and tests funded under ADAPT,
like any other European Social Fund (ESF)
intervention, have been implemented through Member State programmes and actions, reflecting national
needs and priorities.

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/229

For the EQUAL Community Initiative, the Commission defined mainstreaming as one of the key principles.
Mainstreaming relates to a process that includes identifying lessons, clarifying the innovative element and
approach that produced the results, their dissemination, validation and transfer. In order to organise
mainstreaming of EQUAL on a broader scale and in all directions, the Commission is currently establishing
European Thematic Groups at European level which will draw together and share the good practice which
has been identified by the Member States thus contributing to the development of European employment
and social inclusion policies.

(2002/C 134 E/242)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3401/01

by Anneli Hulthén (PSE) to the Commission

(21 December 2001)

Subject: Research into the manufacture of paediatric medicinal products

The medicines that are the subject of current research and approval procedures are, almost without
exception, intended for adults and not for children. When children fall ill, they are often given the same
medicines as adults, albeit at lower doses. Such medicines have not been tested on children, however, the
reason being that children constitute a relatively small patient group and clinical trials are very expensive
to conduct in the case of medicinal products.

Medicines that work well for adults do not necessarily work as well for children. Children’s bodies are
growing, children have a higher metabolic rate than adults, and children are more sensitive to active
substances in medicines.

In December 2000, the Council adopted a resolution stressing that incentives were one possible route
Europe could take with a view to increasing the range of paediatric medicinal products.

What progress is the Commission making as regards devising measures to promote clinical research which
will result in better medicines for children?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(28 January 2002)

The difficulties associated with the development of suitably adapted medicines for children is recognised by
the Commission.

In response to the Council’s resolution of December 2000, the Commission clearly indicated that it
recognised the problem and was prepared to take action in accordance with resource and priority
considerations.

The Commission is committed to the development of a new legislative proposal in 2002. A meeting with
Member States was organised on this subject in November 2001 and a consultation document is currently
under preparation in order to encourage input and discussion from all the stakeholders concerned.

(2002/C 134 E/243)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3407/01

by Kyösti Virrankoski (ELDR) to the Commission

(5 December 2001)

Subject: Scope of the Waste Incineration Directive 2000/76/EC of 4 December 2000

In the Member States of the EU the use of waste oil for the production of heat energy is restricted,
particularly as regards small heating units. At the time, the reason for this was that it was not possible to
burn waste oil in small heating plants while complying with current emissions standards. However, oil