WRITTEN QUESTION E-0015/03 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Employees of the Commission.
Date: 2003-01-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, European official, administration of the Institutions, administrative expenditure (EU), servant (EU), wage cost

C 242 E/86

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

9.10.2003

Article 18 clearly provides for a differentiation in the level of suitability and ‘know your customer’
requirements, taking into account the nature of the investment service. This will ensure that the form and
extent of this assessment are implemented in a way which is appropriate for the provision of low cost and
flexible brokerage formats to clients, while still taking account of the extent to which transactions in
different financial products represent different degrees of market risk for the investors.

(1) COM(2002) 625 final.
(2) Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May 1993 on investment services in the securities field (cid:1) OJ L 141, 11.6.1993.

(2003/C 242 E/089)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0015/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(20 January 2003)

Subject: Employees of the Commission

Will the Commission please give figures for the total numbers of employees in post for each of the last
five years (including 2002 if available), together with the total wage bill and average paid per employee?

Will the Commission also give figures for the number of employees of the Commission as a percentage of
total employees of the Commission, Council and Parliament together, and as a percentage of total
employees of all EU Institutions?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(3 April 2003)

1.
The table below shows the total number of employees of the Commission, the total wage bill (total
payments charged against the various budget lines including all associated costs and contributions) and the
average paid per employee. Figures are only readily available for the last four years.

II

III

Year

(In euro)

I

1999

2000

2001

2002

Commission Total
number of employees
(officials and temporary staff,
auxiliary and local staff,
special advisers and others)

24 877

25 027

25 585

26 394

Total wage bill

Average payment
per employee per year

1 709 133 547

1 767 988 924

1 856 899 099

1 954 456 016

68 703

70 643

72 578

74 049

Since the Commission does not have access to the figures for numbers of employees of the other
2.
Institutions, the Honourable Member will
find below the proportion of posts in the Commission’s
establishment plan compared to the total number of posts in the establishment plans of all the institutions.
The establishment plan only includes officials and temporary agents’ posts.

Year

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

Commission
(permanent and temporary posts)

Total EU institutions
(permanent and temporary posts)

21 495

21 603

21 703

22 306

22 453

30 384

30 599

30 819

31 604

31 861

%

70,74

70,60

70,42

70,47

70,58

9.10.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 242 E/87

Commission: all budgets (Administration, Research and Technological Development, Office for Official
Publications, OLAF, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training and the European
Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions)

Institutions: Commission, Parliament and European Ombudsman, Council, Court of Justice, Court of
the Regions and Joint organisational
Auditors, Economic and Social Committee and Committee of
structure.

(2003/C 242 E/090)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0039/03

by Renato Brunetta (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(21 January 2003)

Subject: A major accident, within the meaning of Article 3 of Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996

(‘Seveso II’), at the petrochemical works in Porto Marghera on 28 November 2002

Knowing that:

(cid:1) on 28 November 2002 there was a major accident (cid:1) as defined in Article 3 of Directive 96/82/EC (1)
of 9 December 1996, known as ‘Seveso II’ (cid:1) inside the petrochemical works at Porto Marghera
(Venice, Italy), where a large explosion, followed by a fire, occurred in two stores of chlorinated pitch,
causing the uncontrolled release of toxic substances such as dioxins. Four people were injured in the
explosion and the entire population of the built-up areas of Marghera and Mestre (around 200 000
people) were put on a state of alert and urged to stay at home;

(cid:1) DCE and VCM are carcinogenic substances included in Annex I, Part I of the ‘Seveso II’ Directive;

(cid:1) in June 2000 the company owning the plants submitted to the Ministry for the Environment an
environmental compatibility application for a project to step up the production capacity of both VCM
and DCE;

(cid:1) the assessment carried out by the National Committee for Environmental

Impact Assessment
concluded with a negative opinion (1 August 2002) and the opinion of the Ministry for Cultural
Assets and Activities was also negative;

(cid:1) environmental

impact assessment is an instrument allowing the population and institutions to be
acquainted with the contents of the investigation report and the final opinion adopted by the
committee,
impact
assessment (cid:1) informing the public.

the fundamental principles of environmental

thereby implementing one of

Can the Commission say:

(cid:1) why, more than five months after the EIA committee delivered its opinion, has the Minister for the
Environment not taken steps to issue a decree announcing the environmental incompatibility of the
application to increase the production of VCM and DCE;

(cid:1) why, in the current Community legislative context, it has not yet launched a global inspection of all
the chemical plants in Porto Marghera, which pose a real danger to security and the health of the
resident population and workers?

(1) OJ L 10, 14.1.1997, p. 13.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(3 March 2003)

The Commission’s powers are limited to those conferred on it by the EC Treaty. Under Article 211, the
Commission is responsible for ensuring that Community law is properly applied within all Member States.
Therefore, it has the power to check how Member States apply Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December
1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (1), but it has not the power