WRITTEN QUESTION E-3870/02 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Withdrawal of public access to the Eurodicautom facility.
Date: 2003-01-10
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: access to EU information, database, enlargement of the Union, official language, terminology

9.10.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 242 E/79

undertakings (‘integrated tickets’). The current situation on the passenger rail market does not make it
necessary to impose financial sanctions on railway undertakings who do not publish their timetables in
due time.

The Commission would also like to point out that the International Union of Railways (UIC) has launched
on 3 December 2002 the Merits- database (Multiple European Railway Integrated Timetable Storage). The
database shall centralise timetable data on trains operating at both national and international
level
(approximately 180 000 trains of 32 European railways undertakings) in Europe. The UIC also started the
(Price and Fare Information System), which will provide potential
development of the Prifis-project
customers and sales staff with all the information they need to plan a trip and conclude a sale,
i.e.
timetable details, prices including fares and conditions (sale, travel, and after-sale) for each product, and the
availability of seats and berths. Prifis is expected to be operational by 2005.

Furthermore, the Community of European Railways (CER), recently launched an initiative to improve
service levels offered for international rail services, one of
them being the intention to improve
information to be provided to potential customers through integrated information and ticketing systems.

(1) Directive 2001/16/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 on the interoperability of the trans-

European conventional rail system (cid:1) OJ L 110, 20.4.2001.

(2003/C 242 E/082)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3870/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(10 January 2003)

Subject: Withdrawal of public access to the Eurodicautom facility

Can the Commission state whether it is true that, as various media sources claim, public access to
Eurodicautom, its terminology database, is to be withdrawn?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(21 February 2003)

The Commission has made no decision to withdraw public access to this database. It would however, take
this opportunity to inform the Honourable Member that Eurodicautom will soon be integrated into a new
interinstitutional terminology database, which is intended to incorporate the contents of the databases
already existing in the various institutions and bodies of the European Union.

The aim of this project is to meet the challenge of the forthcoming enlargement, which will expand the
problems associated with terminological data to some twenty languages.

In the context of this project, the Commission will (cid:1) in consultation with the other Institutions and other
partners in this project (cid:1) be examining the question of access to the new database, bearing in mind the
need for sound management of public funds. Users will, of course, be kept informed of developments in
this project through the appropriate channels including the existing websites.