WRITTEN QUESTION E-1905/02 by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission. Intrusive and percussive sounds affecting the hard of hearing.
Date: 2002-07-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: noise, physically disabled person, product safety, television equipment

C 309 E/172

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

12.12.2002

(2002/C 309 E/199)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1894/02

by Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Deaths of young people in traffic accidents in Finland

(1 July 2002)

The number of young motorists (aged 21-25) involved in fatal road accidents increased dramatically in
Finland in 2001. The number of fatal accidents in 2001 was 38, whereas the corresponding figure for
2000 was 21.

What measures does the Commission propose to take to reduce the number of road accidents leading to
the death of young drivers?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(22 August 2002)

The provisional estimates available to the Commission indicate the Union average to be 104 persons killed
on the road per million inhabitants in 2001.

In Finland, where the corresponding rate is 85, the absolute figure (total number of road deaths) has since
1995 fluctuated between 400 and 440. The poor figure for 2001, which not only involved young drivers,
does not reveal any significant statistical trend.

Over the last ten years, the mortality of young people in road accidents in the Union as a whole has
followed the same trend as that of other age groups. The Commission nonetheless shares the Honourable
Member’s concern regarding young people, who die on the roads in particularly high numbers.

In addition to planned or existing measures not aimed at specific groups, the Commission is currently
providing financial support for several measures aimed specially at young drivers, including drink-driving
campaigns (‘Euro-Bob’) and a campaign to improve behaviour, coordinated among all the Red Cross
organisations of the Member States.

In addition, the Commission is pursuing an on-going in-depth discussion of the training of novice drivers
after they have obtained their licence. This includes the ANDREA and DAN projects (now completed) and
ADVANCED (still under way), designed to assess the impact of educational measures on the behaviour of
young drivers (compulsory training after obtaining the driving licence and re-education courses for
offenders). ANDREA looked in particular at measures for drink-driving offenders.

(2002/C 309 E/200)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1905/02

by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission

(2 July 2002)

Subject: Intrusive and percussive sounds affecting the hard of hearing

Is the Commission aware of intrusive or percussive sounds on television, which cause problems for the
hard of hearing?

Is the Commission intending to research the subject of intrusive and percussive sounds emitted by
televisions?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(20 September 2002)

The Commission has not been informed of the existence of hearing impairments linked to noise emissions
specifically from television sets.

12.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 309 E/173

The safety of these products is guaranteed by their conformity to European marketing standards. However,
safety can only be guaranteed when the conditions of use specified by the manufacturer are observed.

At present, the Commission has no plans specifically to research this area.

(2002/C 309 E/201)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1920/02

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 July 2002)

Subject: Commission gifts

A recent news article reported that Commissioners will not disclose a full list of gifts along with the gifts’
donors ‘or protocol and diplomatic reasons, and so as to avoid any potential embarrassment for foreign
officials’.

Is this, indeed, the Commission policy?

What are the protocol and diplomatic reasons for not declaring gifts’ donors?

Would the Commission care to expand on its reasons for not wanting to embarrass foreign officials giving
personal gifts to Commissioners or Commission staff?

Would it not be Commission policy,
transparency’, to publish a list of gifts and donors on the Commission website?

its commendable commitment

in light of

to ‘openness and

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(23 September 2002)

The Code of Conduct for Commissioners states that they shall not accept gifts of a value greater than
EUR 150. When, in accordance with standard diplomatic usage, they do receive gifts whose value exceeds
that amount, they hand them over to the Commission’s Protocol Service.

On the occasion of exploratory talks preceding a visit of a high level personality to the Commission,
Protocol discourages any presentation of gifts. Nevertheless,
in accordance with their traditions, some
visitors insist on presenting a gift in memory of their visit.

To publish a list of gifts containing the names of the donors would cause embarrassment to those visitors
who, acting on advice, did not present any gift.

These gifts are mostly objects which represent local arts or crafts or which are personalised, for example
engraved with the name of the donor, the recipient or the occasion.

As mentioned above, gifts of a value greater than EUR 150 are handed over to the Protocol Service. It is
often a difficult and highly subjective task to determine whether a very typical gift is of a value (market or
usage value?) greater than EUR 150.

Since only the latter must be notified to the Protocol Service, some donors might take offence at not
seeing their gift on the list.

It can sometimes be very difficult to describe a particular gift, to define its usage or to find a reference to
the artist that produced it (in the case of engravings or paintings).

A significant number of gifts are put into storage, some adorn the corridors, offices and rooms of the
Commission, while other, non-personalised gifts are given to charities.