WRITTEN QUESTION E-1811/02 by Nicholas Clegg (ELDR) to the Commission. Illegal logging.
Date: 2002-06-24
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, European forestry policy, deforestation, environmental cooperation, illicit trade, terms for aid

C 137 E/28

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

12.6.2003

(2003/C 137 E/030)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1811/02

by Nicholas Clegg (ELDR) to the Commission

(24 June 2002)

Subject: Illegal logging

In the light of recent attention given to the problem of illegal logging in the run up to the World Summit
on Sustainable Development and the regional forest law enforcement initiatives in Asia and Africa and
given that the European Commission is preparing an Action Plan to Combat Illegal Logging and related
Illegal Trade, to be presented to the European Parliament and Council by the end of the year, could the
Commission confirm where the funding to implement activities with partner countries will come from?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2002)

Funding for actions to assist wood-producing countries to combat illegal logging and its associated trade
can potentally come from two main sources:

(cid:1) the Community development budget assigned to that country, for financial and technical or economic
co-operation. Priority areas for use of these funds are set out in Country Strategy Papers and National
Indicative Programmes, in agreement with the partner country;

(cid:1) the budget line for tropical forest and the environment. Funds from this budget line are disbursed
for proposals. Some funds are also available to finance the activities of

through an open call
international organisations outside the call for proposals.

(2003/C 137 E/031)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1824/02

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(27 June 2002)

Subject: Need to go on purchasing new and more expensive Microsoft products because of restrictions on

the use of old software

1.
Is the Commission aware that Microsoft’s old PC operating systems Windows 95, 98 and the
Millennium Edition used for professional purposes, as well as the more recent Windows NT3, NT4 and
2000 Professional were replaced the end of 2001 by Windows XP Home Edition, and the only slightly
different but one and a half times more expensive professional version Windows XP Professional, that the
cheaper operating systems have disappeared from price lists for firms with several licences and that with
Windows XP Home Edition it
is no longer possible to be included in business domains, so that
organisations that had already opted for domain security are now unexpectedly being forced to convert to
a product line that is one and a half to two times as expensive;
in addition, because of technical
incompatibility between older and newer versions and the withdrawal of technical support for older
versions, users are being put under continuous pressure to purchase the latest versions?

2.
Can the Commission confirm the claim by NGN, the Dutch user group network, that the prices of
Microsoft software are continuing to rise excessively even without the changes in the licence programme
and are disproportionate to price trends for hardware, while these major price rises bear no relation to
higher development or distribution costs for
the number and type of
improvements between two successive versions are becoming smaller and smaller?

the software given that