WRITTEN QUESTION E-3388/02 by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Use of Community funds by Citizens' Assistance Centres and local and regional government enterprises.
Date: 2002-11-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, Greece, Structural Funds, administrative transparency, complaint to the Commission, corruption, fraud against the EU, public administration, regional and local authorities

C 161 E/88

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

10.7.2003

(2003/C 161 E/093)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3388/02

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 November 2002)

Subject: Use of Community funds by Citizens’ Assistance Centres and local and regional government

enterprises

On 15 October 2002, Commissioner Michaele Schreyer kindly forwarded a written answer to Question No
E-2321/02 (1) referring to the failure of the Greek authorities to publish the Council of Europe report
drawn up by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which makes some highly unfavourable
disclosures concerning corruption in Greek public administration and local government bodies.

Is the Commission aware of the methods used to recruit staff for the Citizens’ Assistance Centres in the
Greek regions and of how the Community funds provided to set up those Centres are being used? Is there
transparency and the proper use of Community
compliance with the fundamental principle of
appropriations? Is the Commission aware of complaints concerning post-dated contracts of civil servants
at Citizens’ Assistance Centres, and in which local government areas? Is there any information available
concerning the use of Community funds in local government enterprises (e.g. data processing enterprises
etc) run by Greek local government bodies? In which local and regional enterprises and companies (please
state names) have problems been identified with the use of funds and non-transparent procedures? When
exactly does the Commission intend to carry out further checks and in which municipalities, prefectures
and regions in Greece (please state names again)?

(1) OJ C 155 E, 3.7.2003, p. 12.

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(22 January 2003)

The evaluation report on Greece established by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) was
adopted in May 2002 and, further to approval of the Greek authorities, published in October 2002
(i.e. after the Commission’s reply to Written Question E-2321/02). It is true that the report contains a very
general remark indicating that most of the (reported) corruption cases concern cases of bribery of Greek
officials with a view to obtaining subsidies from Community funds. However, this is not further specified
in the report, which mainly assesses the situation of anti-corruption strategies and bodies.

The project ‘Ariadne: System of provision of services and administrative information to the citizens’, or
Citizens’ Assistance Centres, with a total budget of EUR 57,1 million, has been cofinanced by the
Operational Programme ‘Information Society’ within the Community Support Framework 2000-2006 for
Greece since 2002.

According to information received by the Managing Authority of the programme, the implementing
bodies (1) are:

1.

2.

the Ministry of
(about 700) small municipalities below 10 000 inhabitants;

Interior, Public Administration and De-centralisation, concerning the Centres in

the big municipalities themselves (about 135), i.e. those with a population above 10 000 inhabitants
in the small municipalities are supported by a sub-project with a budget of
Operations
EUR 39,2 million, which consists of hiring temporary, specialised, university educated information
technology (IT) staff to serve the Centres during the pilot operation until 2003. EETAA, the Greek
Union of Local Administration, runs the sub-project on behalf of the Ministry of
Interior and
according to circulars issued by this ministry, establishes the staff qualifications and the model
contracts.

10.7.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 161 E/89

The Commission has not been aware of any complaints, irregularities or other problems concerning the
implementation of the project Ariadne to date. If, following ad hoc checks as a result of a complaint, or
the regular checks foreseen by the structural fund Regulations, it appears that such irregularities, or other
problems have occurred, the Commission will take all the necessary measures as provided in those
Regulations. It will decide which checks to undertake, and where, once it has obtained the Member State’s
comments on the matter.

(1)

Final beneficiaries.

(2003/C 161 E/094)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3402/02

by Marco Cappato (NI) to the Commission

(29 November 2002)

Subject: Total Information Awareness

According to some articles that have appeared in the press, the United States Government approved last
February a USD 200 million budget to develop two new offices: the Information Exploitation Office and
the Information Awareness Office. The latter is notably building a programme called Total Information
Awareness (TIA), whose aim is the collection, integration and treatment of any kind of information in
order to detect suspect individual behaviours and identify potential terrorists. Some of the planned
activities of TIA are the development of the Genoa I software for the clandestine exploration of all
electronic databases and other forms of data-mining and information collection at international level.

Given the global nature of electronic communications, the system would have immediate implications for
and be effective on communications even between EU citizens.

Can the Commission ask the US Government for confirmation of this information? If this information is
confirmed, does the Commission not think that the planned activities of TIA would be in breach of EU
directives on data protection, and of other relevant treaties between the EU, its Member States and the US?
What measures will the Commission take in order to have EU law and European citizens’ rights and
freedoms fully respected?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(28 January 2003)

The Commission is aware of a programme called ‘Total Information Awareness (TIA)’ managed by the
‘Information Awareness Office’ of the American Department of Defence’s Research and Development
(R & D) agency ‘Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’ (DARPA).

According to publicly available information, the TIA programme would focus on the development of
architectures for a ‘large-scale counter-terrorism database’, building on existing sources and new sources to
be created, as well as on new tools for processing information for subsequent inclusion and analysis which
would enable ‘actionable intelligence’. The goal would be to improve the ability of the United States to
‘detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists’ and their plans and thereby enable the United States to ‘take
timely action to successfully preempt and defeat terrorist acts’. The Commission has no specific contacts
with American authorities on this programme. Operational use of the prototypes developed under this
programme could imply cooperation with authorities outside the United States. Where applicable,
Community law, including privacy rules, must be fully respected.