WRITTEN QUESTION P-1405/02 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Privatisation of ABX, the Belgian Railways (NMBS/SNCB) road freight company.
Date: 2002-05-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, State aid, capital increase, carriage of goods, control of State aid, holding company, industrial restructuring, rail transport, road transport, transfer of businesses, transport company

C 277 E/202

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

14.11.2002

In view of the above information and in full awareness of the fact that this does not constitute a new
threat but, rather, the identification of a risk to which people have been exposed for generations (though
bearing in mind that, according to the Swedish authorities, between 200 and 600 new cases of cancer
each year are attributable to acrylamide in Sweden alone), what action does the Commission intend to take
or propose at European level in response to the emergence of this new information?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(21 June 2002)

On 24 April 2002, the Swedish National Food Administration made public new findings on acrylamide in
foods. High levels were detected in carbohydrate-rich foods produced using high temperatures, particularly
frying and baking processes.

Acrylamide is a known possible cancer-causing chemical, although its formation in food has not been
highlighted before this study. Improvements and new developments in analytical methods have led to this
finding that some cooking practices might cause the formation of acrylamide in food. The mechanism by
which this occurs is not clear.

As for all new scientific developments, the Swedish method must be validated. Nevertheless, on 17 May
2002 the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency published results which confirmed the Swedish
findings. A limited number of samples were tested in both studies and it is clear that this issue must be
further investigated more widely.

The Commission has asked the Member States and representatives of the industry to investigate this issue
and provide information. In parallel, the Commission has taken steps to consult the Scientific Committee
on Food on the scientific aspects of this issue. Furthermore, the Commission is working alongside the
World Health Organisation, which will hold a world-wide expert consultation on this issue at the end of
June 2002.

The Commission is currently exploring how the large-scale ‘European Prospective Investigation of Cancer
and nutrition’ (EPIC) cohort study, which has been co-financed by the Europe against Cancer programme
for more than ten years, could be exploited to answer the question of relative risk towards cancer from
acrylamide in food. EPIC is co-ordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the
World Health Organisation. The study includes approximately 500 000 European participants from nine
Member States and Norway. Twenty-four different research centres follow the nutritional habits of the
participants, preceding the later occurrence of cancer. This is an ideal frame in which to address the
question of a so far unreported risk towards cancer from acrylamide in food.

Under the Commission’s current Framework research programme, there are no European collaborative
projects on acrylamide in food. If necessary, the call for proposals for the new Framework research
programme could include topics on this subject.

The available information is clearly limited at this stage. A provisional assessment will help determine the
extent of risk that might be posed by this newly identified issue.

(2002/C 277 E/223)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1405/02

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(13 May 2002)

Subject: Privatisation of ABX, the Belgian Railways (NMBS/SNCB) road freight company

In the context of the restructuring of Belgian Railways (NMBS/SNCB), ABX, the Belgian Railways’ loss-
making road freight company, which also has branches in other countries, is to be privatised. According to

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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press reports, Belgian Railways assets are to be sold off to ABX at extremely low prices. For example, the
Brussels site of Klein-Eiland, 70 000 square metres in size, is to be sold for € 10 000, although the true
value of the land is estimated at € 260 million.

I would like to know whether the Commission considers that these low estimates of the value of assets
with a view to selling them to a subsidiary company about to be privatised are consistent with Community
legislation on competition and state subsidies.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(21 June 2002)

According to information available to the Commission the SNCB plans to restructure its organisation and,
amongst others, transfer its road haulage activities that are currently carried out by SNCB and via
subsidiaries under the brand name ABX, to an independent company, wholly owned by SNCB (ABX
Logistics Group). As part of this re-organisation SNCB intends to make a capital increase in the holding
company in exchange for shares by way of, inter alia, a transfer of assets. The Commission has not yet
been informed of the details of the financial elements of this re-organisation and is therefore, as the
Honourable Member will understand, not in a position to give a view on whether it may involve state aid
and, if so, whether it would be compatible with the Community rules on competition and state aid.

The Commission considers seriously requesting the Belgian authorities to notify their plan to restructure
SNCB/ABX, according to Article 88(3) of the EC Treaty.

(2002/C 277 E/224)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1437/02

by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(23 May 2002)

Subject: Disabled persons’ access to public websites

There are some 37 million disabled persons in the EU, and for many of them access to websites frequently
constitutes a source of insuperable difficulties. With the development of on-line public administration
services in particular, there is a serious risk of the social exclusion of this sector of the population.

Over the last ten years, there has been growing world-wide and European recognition of the barriers to full
participation in society which disabled people encounter. The e-Europe action plan 2002, adopted by the
Feira European Council of June 2000, is a wide-ranging initiative intended to speed up and extend the use
of the internet to the whole of European society, in keeping with the principle of non-discrimination. One
of the plan’s objectives is to improve Internet access for disabled people. This is to be implemented by the
European institutions and the Member States, via the adoption of guidelines on internet access to public
sites. These guidelines are a voluntary mechanism, whereby providers of public information accept a set of
rules which take the form of principles, tools and methods.

Given the Commission’s own acknowledgement of the need for a global, consistent strategy to guarantee
the existence of a policy for involving and including people with special needs:

1. What type of measures does the Commission intend to carry out with regard to awareness-raising,
publicity, education and, particularly, training, in connection with achieving full access to web sites for
disabled people? When will there be a specific programme for joint training activities involving web
site programmers and disabled users’ representatives?

2.

Since the guidelines are a voluntary mechanism, and there is a real need to eliminate existing barriers,
when will there be a directive, with the requisite binding character, in this field?