WRITTEN QUESTION E-3029/02 by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Persecution of Catholics in Russia.
Date: 2002-10-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Catholicism, EU relations, Russia, freedom of religious beliefs, religious discrimination, religious group

9.10.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 242 E/35

The following costs have to be added to the price of the licences:

(cid:1) reorganisation and business re-engineering for adapting all the procedures in line with the possibilities

offered by the standard package,

(cid:1) conversion of data for all systems,

(cid:1) provision of training, documentation and user assistance,

(cid:1) technical infrastructure and servers at the Computer Centre.

13.
The Commission seeks to obtain the best value for money when procuring systems. This forms part
of the negotiations over the price and specifications of new systems. Systems are also designed to be
adaptable (cid:1) that is to say that they can be modified to meet changed requirements without undue cost.
It is not true to say that there is a ‘continual’ buying and renewing of systems. Sincom1 needed to be
replaced because the system was not year 2000 compliant, one of the software packages used (Millennium)
was no longer supported by the supplier, accounting for receipts was not managed by Sincom1, and the
system was composed of five different modules from different suppliers and using different technology.
Sincom2 replaced Sincom1 from 1997.

The Commission now envisages the development by 2005 of an integrated accounting system to support
the move towards accrual accounting.

The budgetary accounts provide a transparent presentation to the budgetary authority comparing
14.
the voted budget with the implemented expenditures and collected revenues each week. So, this will also
be an important information tool in the future. The integrated accrual accounting system is being set up
and will improve the reporting on the financial situation. For this reform the steps and decisions are
outlined in the recent communication of the Commission on the modernisation of the accounting system
which has been sent to the Parliament.

(1) OJ C 54, 22.2.1994.

(2003/C 242 E/037)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3029/02

by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(23 October 2002)

Subject: Persecution of Catholics in Russia

The Moscow Patriarchy’s Foreign Relations Department has accused the Roman Catholic church of
proselytising and has decided to deny it the right to preach the gospel in the lands under the Patriarchy’s
dominion.

Does the Commission know any more about this decision, which constitutes a blatant attack on freedom
of thought and belief?

Is the Commission intending to take any action vis-à-vis the Russian authorities with a view to ensuring
that Russia upholds the above freedom?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(28 November 2002)

The Commission refers to the answer it gave to Oral question H-688/02 by Mr Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado
during question time at Parliament’s October 2002 session (1).

The Commission is not aware of any such decision by the department of external relations of the Moscow
Patriarchate. Nevertheless, the Commission is fully conscious of the present difficult situation facing
Catholic and other religious groups in the Russian Federation.

C 242 E/36

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

9.10.2003

In this regard, the Commission fully shares the concern of the Honourable Member over recent restrictions
on freedom of religion affecting the Catholic and other churches in Russia. Since April 2002, at least five
Catholic priests (three Polish, one Italian and one Slovak) have been expelled from Russia following a
decision by the Vatican to seek to upgrade the four temporary church structures in Russia to permanent
Roman Catholic dioceses. Other churches have also been the target of restrictions, including a Swedish
Protestant pastor and a number of Protestant missionaries which were similarly expelled. Furthermore, in
2001 the Moscow branch of the Salvation Army was disbanded, the Moscow office of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses is engaged in a four year long court case which could lead to its closure in Russia, and the
Moscow Department of the Justice Ministry has recently filed a lawsuit against an association belonging to
the Pentecostals. These restrictions cannot be easily reconciled with Russian commitments on human
rights. In particular, the Joint Statement of the last European Union-Russia Summit in Moscow (29 May
2002), states its common goal of strengthening a society based on respect for democratic principles and
human rights.

Within the framework of its intensive political dialogue with Russia, the Union has repeatedly raised its
concerns regarding freedom of religion in Russia. In this context, the Commission will continue actively to
promote the principle of religious freedom as part of its dialogue on human rights issues with Russian
authorities. Furthermore, the Commission will continue to press the message that the effective partnership
that the Union and Russia are trying to establish necessarily has to be based on a series of fundamental
core values, which include full respect for Human Rights. In accordance with the major international and
European Human Rights conventions that Russia has ratified,
for Human Rights and
fundamental liberties includes freedom of religion or belief. In parallel, the promotion of Human Rights in
Russia will continue to be a priority in the framework of the European Initiative for Democracy and
Human Rights (EIDHR). Russia is among the ‘focus countries’ that have been identified for 2002-2004.

this respect

(1) Oral reply, 22.10.2002.

(2003/C 242 E/038)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3049/02

by Wolfgang Ilgenfritz (NI) to the Commission

(24 October 2002)

Subject: Effectiveness of the peer review procedure

The European Commission recommends that all persons who draw up annual accounts on behalf of firms
should be covered by a quality control system designed to guarantee a uniformly high standard in the
preparation of statutory end-of-year accounts. Two arrangements are regarded as appropriate to this
purpose: either monitoring by the relevant authorities, or the peer review procedure, under which the
quality checks are carried out practising auditors, the peers. The Commission has given the Member States
three years in which to introduce systems of this kind and regards a ten-year interval between checks as
acceptable for small auditing firms.

At present, quality checks of this kind are mandatory in only a very few European countries. In Austria,
auditors who draw up annual accounts for firms quoted on the stock market, credit institutions or
insurance companies have been subject since 2002 to a peer review procedure carried out at four-year
intervals. As from 2003, this arrangement will apply to auditors who draw up annual accounts for major
corporations. It is not yet clear whether the original proposal to extend peer review procedures to cover all
other auditors as from 2004 will be implemented.

The professional association representing Austrian auditors has quite rightly criticised the fact that the
mandatory introduction of overly strict quality control systems generates disproportionately high costs for
small auditing firms, placing them at a serious disadvantage vis-à-vis their larger competitors. Many smaller
firms may be forced to close, thereby automatically increasing the market share enjoyed by the bigger
companies. The smaller firms would merely be forced to take on extra administrative staff and the
additional costs they incur in connection with each auditing exercise would increase enormously, whereas
the peers would enjoy a steadily increasing turnover.