WRITTEN QUESTION E-0173/02 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Use of languages for receiving visitors to the European institutions.
Date: 2002-02-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, administration of the Institutions, personnel administration, security services, use of languages

29.8.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 205 E/87

Reply

(21 May 2002)

The Council shares the Honourable Member’s concern at the apparent scope and scale of the use of the
death penalty in China. It is a concern that the European Union has frequently expressed to the Chinese
authorities. The Council has also sought to obtain clear statistics from the Chinese government on the
number of people condemned to death and those executed, so far, sadly, without success.

The Council has not considered urging Member States not to participate in the 2008 Olympics as a useful
means of pursuing its objective of ending capital punishment in China.

(2002/C 205 E/097)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0173/02

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(6 February 2002)

Subject: Use of languages for receiving visitors to the European institutions

In a written reply to former Member of Parliament André Monteyne, the Protocol and Security Service of
the Directorate-General for Personnel and Administration acknowledged that Brussels had bilingual status.
Its reply also indicated that most reception desks at the Commission had been closed for budgetary and
practical reasons, as most visitors had made appointments. The Commission has, however, invested in
security services.

1. What are the practical reasons for reducing the number of reception desks, and what are the
budgetary reasons?

Does the Commission acknowledge that it cannot now ensure that visitors to institutions in Brussels

2.
can be addressed in Dutch or in French?

3.
Does it intend at least to make knowledge of Dutch and French compulsory for staff whose job it is
to welcome visitors, whether or not such staff are located at reception desks? If not, what arguments are
there for not ensuring such bilingualism?

4. Will the Commission also urge security firms to ensure that their staff working as security guards at
EU institutions in Brussels have a command of Dutch and French? If not, why not? If so, how will it ensure
such bilingualism?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(8 April 2002)

The Honourable Member will be aware that the Commission is a European Institution working with 15
Member States and 11 official languages. The Honourable Member will also be aware that the Commission
is hosted, as an Institution, by Belgium (and in other locations by other Member States), and that Belgium
has three official languages: French, Dutch and German.

Over the last two years only four reception desks were closed or merged. The practical reason for reducing
the number of reception desks was that the vast majority of visitors are received in buildings that house
Members of the European Commission and, working under clear budgetary constraints and pressures of
costs, the Commission had to find effective ways of ensuring sustained security and appropriate reception
of visitors. In addition, as the Honourable Member will know, the Commission has reviewed all
its
activities with a view to outsourcing those tasks that do not necessarily need to be performed by officials.

C 205 E/88

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.8.2002

Starting in the second half of this year, the Commission will strive to ensure that all buildings housing
Commissioners will have at least one receptionist in addition to security personnel.

For many years, security control for access to all Commission buildings has operated on a contractual
basis. Personnel provided by the contractor are required to be able to address visitors in at least two of the
languages of the Institution, one of which should be a working language.

The Commission now occupies more than 60 buildings in Brussels. The principal buildings of the
Commission have receptionists on duty. These are officials who are specifically trained to welcome visitors.
They speak various Community languages including, at least, French and English. In Commission buildings
generally, however, there is a security desk to register visitors but no reception desk as such. Visitors to
those buildings mainly tend to come to the Commission by appointment, and they originate from all 15
Members States as well as A increasingly A from the candidate states for accession to the Union, and also
from other countries in all parts of the world.

The Commission has a representation office in Brussels, located at rue Archimede 73, and an Info Point
Europe, at rue de la Loi 242, where visitors can find documentation in all official languages. In addition,
assistance can be provided in several languages, including the national languages of Belgium.

(2002/C 205 E/098)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0185/02

by Carlos Carnero González (PSE) to the Council

(5 February 2002)

Subject: Execution of three male Saudi Arabian citizens on grounds of homosexual relations

According to recent media reports, three male Saudi Arabian citizens (Ali bin Hatan bin Saad, Muhammad
bin Suleiman bin Muhammad, and Muhammad bin Khalil bin Abdullah) were recently executed by
beheading, having been sentenced to death after being found ‘guilty’ of homosexual relations.

These reports once again brutally show up how fundamental human rights A such as, in these cases, the
right to choose one’s sexual orientation A are systematically violated in Saudi Arabia, in a context where
the death penalty continues to be applied.

We are dealing on both counts with attitudes which run totally counter to the values affirmed by the EU in
the framework of the common foreign and security policy.

What has the Council’s response been to this news? What measures has it adopted or will it adopt to
including the rights of homosexual
ensure that the Saudi Arabian government respects human rights,
citizens, and abolishes the death penalty?

Reply

(21 May 2002)

The EU is actively working for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. As regards Saudi Arabia,
human rights issues, including the death penalty, are addressed in bilateral contacts and in the context of
the political dialogue with the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a member.