WRITTEN QUESTION P-3626/02 by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Implementation by Greece of Directive 1999/70/EC.
Date: 2002-12-10
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Greece, application of EU law, contract staff, job security, labour law, temporary employment

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/299

Further, some operators also price differently according to the weight, size or dimensions of the postal
item.

Many postal operators now offer a wide range of services to their customers, with a wide range of prices.
This would make it difficult to easily compare and price identically like- for-like services.

Finally, the allocation of stamp revenues across postal operators would be extremely difficult to assess were
stamps to become interchangeable. For example, if Irish stamps were used in Belgium, the postal operator
in Ireland would benefit from the stamp revenue but incur no costs towards the delivery of the postal item
in Belgium. Tackling this distortion would imply a complex, costly and potentially controversial system of
revenue reallocation between postal operators.

In light of the above, the preconditions for the ‘interchangeability’ of stamps do not seem to be present, or
look likely to be present in the near future.

However, the Honourable Member question raises an interest point about one possible future development
in the postal services market and the Commission will continue to monitor the issue.

(2004/C 88 E/0306)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3626/02

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(10 December 2002)

Subject: Implementation by Greece of Directive 1999/70/EC

Under Council Directive 1999/70/EC (1) of 28 June 1999 on fixed-term work, the Member States are
required to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with
this Directive by 10 July 2002. Three months after the deadline for Greece to comply with Directive 1999/
70/EC, the Greek Government published a draft Presidential Decree which unlawfully exempts from the
scope of the directive individuals employed on contract by the public administration,
legal persons
governed by public law, local government and many other sectors of economic activity.

In its opinion on the Presidential Decree, with which employees and employers fully agreed, the Economic
and Social Committee of Greece rejected the above exemptions introduced by the Presidential Decree as
‘contrary to the letter of the Directive’. Given that Directive 1999/70/EC affects many thousands of
workers in Greece who work under insecure and uncertain conditions, will the Commission say why it
does not initiate proceedings against the Member State in question in the Court of Justice for its failure to
comply with the deadlines for implementing Directive 1999/70/EC and for the Greek Government’s
unacceptable restriction of the scope of that Directive?

(1) OJ L 175, 10.7.1999, p. 43.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(14 January 2003)

As Greece has not communicated to the Commission any information regarding the transposition of
Directive 1999/70/EC concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC,
UNICE and CEEP, the Commission will be obliged to examine the possibility of launching infringement
proceedings against Greece on these grounds.