WRITTEN QUESTION E-3666/01 by Charles Tannock (PPE-DE) to the Commission. The re-employment of scientists who worked in Soviet biotechnology weapons laboratories.
Date: 2002-01-15
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: USSR, research body, research policy, scientific profession, scientific research, vocational retraining, weapon of mass destruction

18.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 172 E/105

The purpose is to enable the Commission to assess the results of the application of the directives.

Has the Commission carried out such assessments in the light of these reports?

Is it also possible for the public to obtain access to those reports?

(1) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 209, 24.7.1992, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(22 February 2002)

The Commission regularly carries out an evaluation of application and effectiveness of
the public
procurement directives, on the basis of the statistical reports from Member States, published notices in the
Official Journal Supplement S, and other available statistics.

The results of these evaluations have contributed to the Commission’s reports on the functioning of
Community product and capital Markets (1) and, as structural
indicators to the Contribution of the
Commission to the Spring European Council, Stockholm 23-24th March 2001 (2).

Access to the statistical reports from Member States is governed by the guidelines laid down in Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 (3). Before replying to requests for access to reports submitted before the date of
application of this Regulation (3 December 2001), the Member States concerned will be consulted for their
prior authorisation. For reports submitted after 3 December 2001 access will be granted unless there are
grounds for exception under Article 4 of the Regulation.

(1) COM(2001) 736.
(2) COM(2001) 79 final.
(3) Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to

European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, OJ L 145, 31.5.2001.

(2002/C 172 E/109)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3666/01

by Charles Tannock (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(15 January 2002)

Subject: The re-employment of scientists who worked in Soviet biotechnology weapons laboratories

On Wednesday 21 November The Wall Street Journal Europe published an article (Turning the Bad Into
Good) detailing the nature of the recent partnership agreement between Diversa Corp. a San Diego based
genomics company and the State Centre for Applied Microbiology in Obelinsk Russia. The idea is to
convert the former weapons plant, which used to produce large quantities of weapons-grade anthrax into a
factory for the production of peaceful technologies such as microbe-detection devices, antifungal enzymes
and antibiotics and to provide work for at least some of the many thousands of highly-qualified Soviet
scientists who are currently unemployed or working in dead-end jobs and who are prime targets for rogue
states or terrorist organisations such as Al-Quaeda.

the International Science and Technology Center,

Does the Commission commend the initiative of companies such as Diversa Corp. and has it done
anything to encourage similarly imaginative initiatives by European companies? Does it also believe that
the multinational consortium
the programme of
sponsored by the U.S., the European Union, Japan and Russia which awarded grants of about $62 million
in 2000, including one project that enabled former designers of computerised missile-guidance systems to
create computer-based analytical models of leukaemia prognosis, needs to be considerably expanded if the
skills of all these former Soviet scientists are to be harnessed to peaceful and productive purposes for the
general benefit of mankind?

C 172 E/106

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.7.2002

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(26 February 2002)

The Commission is doing everything within its power to give active support to efforts to prevent or limit
the spread of knowledge on weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons banned by the
1972 Convention on the prohibition of biological weapons of 10 April 1972.

It was in this general context that the European Union together with other international partners and the
Russian Federation set up the International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC) in Moscow in 1994. The
ISTC seeks to support projects in Russia and the newly independent states (NISs) aimed at redirecting
scientists involved in research into weapons of mass destruction towards research for civil purposes. The
EU is thus financing 28 % of ISTC projects, behind the United States (38 %) but ahead of Japan (12 %). The
EU is funding projects of the State Research Centre for Applied Microbiology in Obolensk (GosNIIPM),
referred to by the Honourable Member, while the Commission is currently evaluating a project on the
treatment of leukaemia proposed by this research centre.

Since 1994, from an overall budget allocation of some € 441 million ($401 million), the Commission has
put more than € 120 million into funding ISTC projects through the TACIS budget. In particular the
Commission has financed numerous biology-related projects for a total of € 15 million. The United States,
by comparison, has committed some € 165 million to funding ISTC projects, including € 31 million for
biology projects. GosNIIPM is thus receiving investment funds totalling € 8,4 million for 52 ISTC projects.

Beside the lavish support being offered by ISTC members, additional ISTC projects are being financed in
partnership with industrialists and institutional players. This is the background to the agreement between
‘Partner projects’ today represent 21 % (in value terms) of projects
Diversa Corporation and GosNIIPM.
financed by the ISTC and are backing up the ISTC’s non-proliferation efforts. The Commission encourages
and supports partnerships with European industry and has on several occasions stressed the advantages of
such funding to European research bodies. The ISTC currently has 23 European partners who alone are
financing 47 partner projects.

The ISTC is therefore a multilateral
instrument without parallel for converting the Russian and NIS
research apparatus, and the Commission attaches commensurate importance to it. The Commission
currently allocates an annual budget of € 21 million to the ISTC, and is represented at the ISTC’s Moscow
secretariat by a European executive director. In the foreseeable future the Commission intends to pursue
this human and financial commitment to developing ISTC activities in the framework of the current TACIS
programme.

(2002/C 172 E/110)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3667/01

by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission

(15 January 2002)

Subject: Canalisation of the Poyo, Torrent, Chiva and Pozalet ravines (Valencia G Spain)

A resolution by Spain’s department for hydraulic works and water quality was published in the country’s
official journal 291 of 5 December 2001, containing an invitation to tender for the project to enhance and
adapt the beds of the Poyo, Torrente, Chiva and Pozalet ravines.

As the Commission is aware, following my Written Questions E-1059/00 (1) andP-2534/01 (2), as well as
the complaints lodged by Agro-Environmental Action and the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO)
(99/4430 and 99/4494), these canalisation works will have an impact on the La Albufera nature park. In
addition, a detailed study of the new draft of the project shows that the work involved will penetrate some
two kilometres inside the boundaries of the nature park.