WRITTEN QUESTION E-1357/02 by Gerhard Schmid (PSE) to the Commission. Banking secrecy in the Member States.
Date: 2002-05-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, banking secrecy, data protection, money laundering, national law, terrorism

C 92 E/48

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

17.4.2003

Fighting cancer is a high priority of the Commission. Although the Europe against Cancer programme will
finish at the end of 2002, it will be succeeded by a public health action plan, which will address issues
relevant to cancer prevention. Between 1996 and 2002, the Europe against Cancer programme has
committed EUR 90,6 million to a multitude of activities, such as the European Week against Cancer.
Furthermore, the new framework research programme also provides for European research on cancer. It is
not possible to produce a comparison between total spending on cancer-related activities and other
information programmes concerning the Union. The same applies to total spending by all Member States
on cancer research and comparisons of fresh fruit and vegetable promotion.

Up to now, only certain types of fruit (citrus fruits, apples and nuts) have been the subject of Community-
cofinanced programmes to promote them on the internal market. The new Community rules have now
extended cofinancing to ‘fruit and vegetables’ programmes. The Commission is currently examining the
proposals for programmes on this subject submitted by the Member States, who had until 15 May 2002 to
do so. The indicative budget allocations each year for Community cofinancing (50 %) are EUR 6 million for
fresh fruit and vegetables and EUR 6 million for processed fruit and vegetables.

The Commission is currently exploring how the large-scale European investigation of cancer and nutrition
cohort study (EPIC), which has been cofinanced by the Europe against Cancer programme for more then
ten years, could be exploited to answer the question of the relative cancer risk from acrylamide in food.
EPIC is coordinated by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC). The study covers approximately 500 000 European participants from nine Member States and
Norway. Twenty-four different research centres are following the nutritional habits of the participants
preceding the later occurrence of cancer.

(1) OJ C 277 E, 14.11.2002, p. 201.

(2003/C 92 E/050)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1357/02

by Gerhard Schmid (PSE) to the Commission

(14 May 2002)

Subject: Banking secrecy in the Member States

Banking secrecy has an important role to play in combating both the financing of terrorism and money
laundering.

Can the Commission therefore state:

1.

2.

In which Member States is banking secrecy laid down by law?

In which Member States does it exist on the basis of the bank’s general terms of business and of its
employees’ employment contracts?

3.

In which Member States does it not exist?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(14 June 2002)

Banking secrecy or customer confidentiality, protected via the criminal code, specific legislation or civil
law, exists in some form in every Member State.

The anti-money laundering Directive, Council Directive 91/308/EEC of 10 June 1991 on prevention of the
use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering (1), as amended by Directive 2001/97/EC
of the Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2001 (2), requires that banking secrecy be suspended
when there is a suspicion of money laundering and that a suspicious transaction report must be made to

17.4.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 92 E/49

the competent authorities. Directive 2001/97/EC, which must be implemented by 15 June 2003, widens
considerably the range of criminal activity covered by the Community definition of money laundering.
When the Directive was adopted, Member States also agreed that all crimes linked to the financing of
terrorism constituted serious crimes for the purposes of the Directive.

The (often complex) situation in the individual Member States can be summarised, in necessarily simplified
terms, as follows.

Banking secrecy is laid down by law in Denmark, Greece, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Finland
and Sweden.

In Belgium, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the concept of
banking secrecy is not set out in specific legislation but is based primarily on the civil law contractual
agreement between the bank and customer which obliges the bank to maintain customer confidentiality.

(1) OJ L 166, 28.6.1991.
(2) OJ L 344, 28.12.2001.

(2003/C 92 E/051)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1367/02

by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 May 2002)

Subject: Costs of pet medicines

The UK’s Competition Commission is currently conducting an inquiry into the costs of drugs to treat pets,
following a number of complaints. It has emerged that the costs of drugs to treat animals in the UK has
risen by about 40 % in the last seven years and is continuing to rise by 11 % per year. It has been
estimated that vaccinations in the UK routinely cost GBP 10 more than elsewhere in Europe. A course of
vaccinations for a puppy costs over GBP 50 in Britain, compared with GBP 26 in Spain. The Commission
will consider why pet owners are obliged to buy medicines from vets rather than pharmacies and whether
there are monopolies in the supply and distribution of treatments.

1.

Has the Commission collected any information on the costs of drugs to treat pets across Europe?

Is the Commission concerned that the significantly higher prices for drugs in the UK may constitute

2.
a distortion of the single market?

Has the Commission conducted any investigations into the prices of such products across Europe and

3.
any possible monopolies in supply and distribution?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(20 June 2002)

The Commission has neither conducted any investigations of the type referred to by the Honourable
Member nor collected any information on the costs of drugs to treat pets. It should be stressed that, during
the last few years, no possible violations of competition rules have been brought to the Commission’s
attention in that particular sector, be it in Europe or in one or more Member States. In particular, the
Commission has not received any complaint relating to this sector on the basis of Article 81 (agreement
between undertakings) and/or Article 82 (abuse of dominant position) of the EC Treaty.

The Commission is confident
the British Competition Commission will conduct a thorough
examination of the market in question and will adopt all measures that may appear to be necessary. The
Commission will of course follow with care the results of the investigation.

that

The Commission has not yet received any information substantiating that the price levels for drugs in the
United Kingdom would constitute an infringement of the Community rules governing the free movement
of goods within the internal market.