WRITTEN QUESTION E-1344/02 by Wolfgang Ilgenfritz (NI) to the Commission. Incorporation of motor vehicles into the Italian motor vehicle register.
Date: 2002-05-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, case-law (EU), freedom to provide services, head office, hire purchase, residence, transport company, vehicle registration

26.9.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 229 E/207

(2002/C 229 E/238)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1343/02

by Pietro-Paolo Mennea (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(2 May 2002)

Subject: Delays in payments

A number of people responsible for cultural and educational programmes, as well as ordinary citizens,
have protested about delays in the payment of grants for projects in the field of culture and education and
occupational training.

Given that, in most cases, the people concerned do not have the necessary financial reserves to advance
the amounts required, the above situation is extremely harmful in both economic and cultural terms.

The Commission:

+ Is it aware of these problems?

+ Will it indicate what ‘time frames’ are applied with respect to such payments?

+ Does it intend to monitor the situation with a view to significantly improving and resolving this

situation?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(12 June 2002)

Each year, the programmes in the fields of culture, education and vocational training involve thousands of
transactions throughout the 30 participating countries. The Commission is aware of the difficulties in
ensuring that payments to beneficiaries are made quickly; these difficulties are partly due to a new
procedure being put in place which entails internalising payments previously made by external technical
assistance offices whose new contracts stipulate that they will no longer carry out tasks considered to be
the responsibility of the public authorities.

The agreements between the Commission and the beneficiaries under the programmes generally provide
that the Commission has a payment deadline of 60 days as from the date of its acceptance of a valid
request for payment (for the payment of an advance: the financing agreement signed by the beneficiary; for
any payment of an intermediate advance or the payment of a balance: the financial accounts and activity
report duly drawn up by the beneficiary and accepted by the Commission).

The Commission is endeavouring to reduce the payment times in the field concerned and has initiated
various measures to this end; subject to the means at its disposal, these include increasing staff numbers
handling payment transactions. However, the Commission keeps a close watch on the quality of financial
management and the controls to which incoming documents must be subjected. In this connection, it is
trying to simplify as far as possible the rules governing the management of the programmes with a view to
speeding up the operational procedures involved.

(2002/C 229 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1344/02

by Wolfgang Ilgenfritz (NI) to the Commission

(13 May 2002)

Subject: Incorporation of motor vehicles into the Italian motor vehicle register

Further to my Written Question of 12 April 2000 (E 1450/00 (1)) and to the answer given by Mr Bolkestein
on behalf of the Commission on 5 June 2000, can the Commission indicate whether, on the basis of the
ruling recently handed down in Case C-451/99, it has changed its views on the legal issues involved? How
will it proceed in this matter?

(1) OJ C 46 E, 13.2.2001, p. 193.

C 229 E/208

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(18 June 2002)

In its answer to the Honourable Member’s Written Question No E-1450/00, the Commission had stated
that it was prepared to re-examine the possibility of taking initiatives concerning the residence or place of
establishment requirement when registering vehicles, depending on the Court of Justice ruling in case
C-451/99, ‘Cura Anlagen’. This ruling was handed down by the Court of Justice on 21 March 2002.

The Commission had already stated in its answer to Written Question No E-1450/00 that this question
had to be examined in relation to the freedom to provide services under the terms of Article 49 of the EC
Treaty. This approach has been confirmed by the Court of Justice.

In particular, the Court of Justice ruled that Article 49 precludes legislation which imposes ‘a requirement
that the person in whose name the vehicle is registered in the Member State of use reside or have a place
of business there, in so far as it obliges a leasing undertaking either to have a principal place of business in
that Member State or to accept registration of the vehicle in the name of the lessee and the consequent
limitation of its rights over the vehicle.’

As a result, the Commission intends to immediately investigate any infringements similar to the case
brought before the Court of Justice, in order to bring the Member States’ legislation in line with this case
law.

(2002/C 229 E/240)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1348/02

by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(13 May 2002)

Subject: Actions to encourage venture capital

Venture capital has a major role to play in boosting innovation on the part of businesses in an open and
competitive economy.

In this connection, what actions has the Commission taken, and what actions does it intend to take, in
order to give the necessary encouragement to venture capital
in the EU and promote incentives to
enterprise creation, thus stimulating employment?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(14 June 2002)

The Commission shares the opinion of the Honourable Member regarding the importance of risk capital
for the stimulation of innovation, growth and job creation. In its report on ‘Risk capital: a key to job
creation in the European Union’ of April 1998, the Commission identified the barriers to the development
of an efficient risk capital market in Europe and proposed, in the Risk Capital Action Plan (RCAP), a set of
measures to help remove these barriers. The Lisbon European Council of March 2000, the Stockholm
European Council of March 2001 and the Barcelona European Council of March 2002 requested that the
RCAP should be fully implemented by 2003. The third RCAP implementation report (1) was discussed at
the Parliament (rapporteur Mr SKINNER) and a resolution was adopted by the Parliament plenary at its
April 2002 session.

The strategy proposed by the RCAP to develop the Community risk capital market comprises three main
axes: (i) measures to foster market integration; (ii) structural reforms to address regulatory barriers and
fiscal constraints; and (iii) measures to promote a culture of entrepreneurship. Responsibility for action in
these policy areas is shared to a varying extent between the Community and the Member States. As the
third RCAP implementation report highlighted, progress is being made in setting up a proper regulatory
framework for the development of the risk capital market. In addition to those actions under the Financial
Services Action Plan (FSAP) that are relevant to the implementation of the RCAP, Member States have
undertaken a number of reforms at the national level.