WRITTEN QUESTION E-0531/02 by Charles Tannock (PPE-DE) to the Council. Reform of the Commission.
Date: 2002-02-25
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, administrative reform, public awareness campaign

14.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 277 E/59

(2002/C 277 E/062)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0531/02

by Charles Tannock (PPE-DE) to the Council

(25 February 2002)

Subject: Reform of the Commission

Is the Council satisfied with the progress made in reforming the Commission, and what measures does the
Council believe are indispensable to that process if it is to be effective and to win public support?

Reply

(22 July 2002)

It would not be appropriate for the Council to take a view on the internal reform of another institution.
The Council is not therefore in a position to respond to the Honourable Member’s question.

On a more general level, however, the European Council, meeting in Göteborg on 15 and 16 June 2001,
gave a reminder of the need for the Union to be served by modern, open and citizen-oriented institutions
and considered that
the Union underscored their
commitment to that objective.

the reforms under way in all

the institutions of

(2002/C 277 E/063)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0533/02

by Ilka Schröder (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(19 February 2002)

Subject: Arrest of Mr Rodríguez Fernández with the help of Eurojust

On 16 January 2002, Mr Juan Ramón Rodríguez Fernández was arrested in Amsterdam on a charge of
having assisted ETA’s Gorbea cell by passing addresses of the suspected right-wing extremist Pedro Varela
on to someone else connected with ETA. As Jungle World No 7, published on 11 February 2002, put it,
that was tantamount to passing on details of targets to be attacked. However, such information is freely
available to anybody who looks it up in the Barcelona public telephone directory.

According to the Spanish newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’, the arrest was the ‘first fruit of the new Eurojust
system, the EU system for judicial cooperation’. According to the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad,
issue dated 20 January 2002, it was carried out very rapidly in response to a request submitted under the
Eurojust system by the Spanish Public Prosecutor to his Dutch counterpart. According to ‘Statewatch’, a
non-governmental organisation, the case was handled by pro-Eurojust (see www.statewatch.org/news/
2002/feb/02eurojust.htm).

Is the Council aware of the circumstances surrounding the arrest and of its legal basis? If so, what might
that legal basis be? If not, which department of the EU or of one of the Member States is responsible for
providing information to MEPs and to the general public?

To what extent was pro-Eurojust or Eurojust
Mr Fernández arrested?

involved in the arrest, and on what

legal basis was

Does the Council feel that the available evidence (passing on a publicly available address) falls under the
definition of terrorism as described in the Framework Decision on combating terrorism (14845/1/01 F
C5-0680/2001 F 2001/0217(CNS))?

Reply

(22 July 2002)

Arrests made by national law enforcement authorities are entirely in the hands of those authorities and not
a matter for the Council, which cannot therefore give any details of the circumstances surrounding the
arrest in question or the legal basis for it.