WRITTEN QUESTION P-2873/02 by Mogens Camre (UEN) to the Commission. EU financial support to the Palestinian Authority.
Date: 2002-10-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Palestine, aid system, bilateral aid, cooperation policy, financial aid, use of aid

C 222 E/26

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

18.9.2003

The Commission duly opened the procedure provided for in the Article 228 against France in the beef case
mentioned by the Honourable Members and specified to the Court what it considered to be an appropriate
penalty payment. However, before the proceedings reached the judgment stage France adopted legislation
to comply with its Community law obligations in the case. After careful scrutiny of the French legislation
the Commission took the view that compliance with the relevant requirements of Community law had
been achieved. In consequence, the Commission has withdrawn its proceedings against France asking for
the costs of the whole procedure to be paid by the Member State.

The Commission has recently decided, taking into account experience gained in recent cases (including the
one mentioned by the Honourable Member), to re-examine its approach to the application of Article 228
in order to examine the way and means to improve the effectiveness of the Court judgments using all the
possibilities offered by the application of lump sums or penalty payments.

Article 227 of the EC Treaty allows a Member State which considers another Member State to have failed
to fulfil a EC Treaty obligation to bring the matter before the Court of Justice. However, proceedings under
this Article even if concluded by a favourable judgment of the Court, would not result in the provision of
financial redress to the Member State initiating the procedure.

(2003/C 222 E/029)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2873/02

by Mogens Camre (UEN) to the Commission

(7 October 2002)

Subject: EU financial support to the Palestinian Authority

For a number of years, the EU has provided the Palestinian Authority with financial support to enable it to
carry out the tasks incumbent upon it, which have also been regarded as a prerequisite for peaceful
development in the region.

A number of articles have appeared in the daily press claiming that Yasser Arafat has had personal control
over most of the funds sent to the Authority and that he has appropriated much of them for his personal
use. Parliament has received reports concerning the great difficulties involved in carrying out an EU-funded
hospital project in the Palestinian territories. The international press frequently carries reports that the
Authority’s activities have been marked by corruption and a failure to carry out tasks financed by foreign
aid.

There is a need for clarification as to how much money the EU has granted the Authority year by year. It is
also important to know to what extent the Commission can check that the funds are used for their
intended purposes.

Will the Commission provide details of the amount of aid granted and how it has been spent, and will it
say whether it considers the Palestinian Authority capable of managing aid in accordance with the criteria
normally applicable to Member States’ bilateral aid?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(18 November 2002)

The Union has provided over EUR 1,6 billion in grant assistance and loans to the Palestinians over the
period 1994-September 2002. The Community financial aid is delivered through development assistance
projects, humanitarian assistance (via the Humanitarian Aid Office (cid:1) ECHO), budgetary support to the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and direct
budgetary assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

A summary table of the Community’s financial assistance provided to the Palestinians since the conclusion
of the Oslo agreements in 1993 is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat.

18.9.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 222 E/27

The attention of the honourable Parliamentary is also drawn on the outcomes of the meeting held on
4 November 2002 between MEP representatives (Cocobu, COBU, AFET) and Commission officials on the
EU aid to the Palestinians. A serie of documents on the management of EU funds to the Palestinians were
handed to the MEP on this occasion, notably a document on the role of the IMF within the framework of
the Direct Budgetary Assistance to the PA that will be also sent to you.

(2003/C 222 E/030)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2880/02

by Giles Chichester (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 October 2002)

Subject: Energy liberalisation progress in the EU

There is much controversy and there are differing statistics as to the extent of liberalisation of the energy
markets in the European Union’s 15 Member States.

I would therefore be interested in knowing:

(cid:1) what is the current level of energy market liberalisation in electricity and gas in the EU’s Member

States, specifically in France?

(cid:1) what are the criteria used by the Commission to define a) the electricity and gas markets and b)

liberalisation?

(cid:1) what is the source and date of data used by the Commission to compile this information?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(22 November 2002)

The liberalisation of Community gas and electricity markets consists of the following measures:

(cid:1) creating competition in the market for generation of electricity or the production or import of gas,

and the development of transparent wholesale markets with several players,

(cid:1) creating competition in the market for supplying gas and electricity to final customers, in particular by

introducing and gradually extending the rights of customers to choose their supplier,

(cid:1) separation of those parts of the business that are natural monopolies, that is transmission and
distribution networks, with the introduction of specific regulation of the prices charges for the use of
networks,

(cid:1) integration of national electricity and gas markets by the adoption of harmonised rules for

transmission tariffs and capacity allocation.

The Commission has recently published its second benchmarking report on the internal electricity and gas
market (1), which is
available on the DG TREN website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/en/
elec_single_market/index_en.html

This document is an up to date reference of the policies adopted in different Member States and some of
the results currently being achieved.

Regarding the level of declared market opening, a table is extracted from the report showing the most
recent information from October 2002 and is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s
Secretariat.

For France, the table shows that for both electricity and gas, the degree of declared market opening is at
the minimum permitted by the current Directives. Furthermore, for gas, the opening of the market is
purely the result of an informal agreement between the regulator and the main gas companies. The Gas
Directive (2) has not been transposed into French law and the case is currently before the Court of Justice.