WRITTEN QUESTION E-0555/03 by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission. Integrated waste management in the municipality of Conegliano.
Date: 2003-02-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, application of EU law, award of contract, restriction on competition, service concession, subcontracting, waste management

C 222 E/216

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

18.9.2003

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(17 March 2003)

The Cohesion Fund contributed EUR 35 179 980 in part-finance to a project including the Mitilini sewage
treatment plant and a drainage and river water grid costing a total of EUR 42 286 533. The Mitilini sewage
treatment plant began to operate in 2002. This means that it is incorrect to say that the town of Mitilini
on Lesbos has no sewage treatment plant or that its construction has been halted.

The Commission believes that the Honourable Member is referring to a project from the Mitilini town
council to extend the present sewerage network. The Commission has no official information from the
Greek authorities on this point but it believes that, like any other system for the collection and treatment
of waste water, the one in Mitilini could be extended and improved by further work.

The decision to finance projects of this type is a matter for the Greek authorities, within the legal
framework of the Structural Funds. However, the Commission hopes that the choice of projects part-
financed by the Community Funds will take account of the strategy devised by the Commission with the
Greek authorities, as set out in a separate chapter of the Operational Programme for the environment
2000-2006. This seeks to encourage the concentration of financial effort on towns in Greece which, unlike
Mitilini, do not yet have a municipal sewage plant and so do not comply with Council Directive 91/271/
EC concerning urban waste-water treatment (1).

(1) OJ L 135, 30.5.1991.

(2003/C 222 E/245)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0555/03

by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission

(27 February 2003)

Subject: Integrated waste management in the municipality of Conegliano

By decision of 8 April 2002 (No 127-597), the Conegliano (TV) municipal council decided, without
issuing a call for tenders, to give responsibility ‘the integrated management of urban and related waste
within the municipal boundaries and the relevant financial management (invoicing and collection) to the
Consortium for local hygiene services (CIT), a consortium of which the municipality forms part, no later
than 1 July 2002, specifying that these services may be carried out either directly by the CIT or through a
third party.’

The same decision stipulates that the CIT’s tasks comprise the integrated and coordinated management of
urban waste and special and related waste, including the collection and transport phases, as well as the
invoicing and collection of payments covering the cost of the services, and that this comprehensive
management, including collection and transport, will help to optimise the organisation of the service in an
optimum territorial context and thus to improve the cost-effectiveness of services and (cid:1) as is also stated (cid:1)
fully outsource the area’s management of urban and related waste.

Subsequently, households, producers and businesses in Conegliano received a letter signed by the Mayor of
the municipality, the chairman of the CIT and the chairman of SAV.NO, informing them of ‘a number of
changes in the management and collection of payments for 2002’. The letter explained, among other
things, that amounts due for the service would be collected by the CIT, via SAV.NO, on the basis of
invoices sent to each user. This letter to users was in fact followed by a SAV.NO-headed invoice.

18.9.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 222 E/217

In short, the Conegliano local council directly transferred responsibility for the service to the CIT, which in
turn subcontracted part of the work to SAV.NO.

In the light of the above, does the Commission not consider that such measures are unacceptable since
they violate Community legislation on subcontracting the management of local public services?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(25 April 2003)

The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that it knows there are certain problems
with Italian legislation in the field of local public services which is incompatible with Community law on
public procurement and concessions. This legislation is currently the subject of an infringement procedure
under which the Commission recently sent a supplementary letter of
formal notice to the Italian
government.

With regard to the award of the waste management service in the municipality of Conegliano, the
Commission will ask the Italian authorities for detailed information which will enable it to assess whether
the case in question is part of the more general problem addressed by the aforementioned infringement
procedure.

(2003/C 222 E/246)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0563/03

by Frédérique Ries (ELDR) to the Council

(27 February 2003)

Subject: Proposal for a regulation on paediatric medicines

In December 2000 the Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the Commission to propose
regulatory measures to improve availability of paediatric treatment. The Council acknowledged that there
was a genuine deficiency in this area of healthcare. The Commission undertook to respond to this call
from the Council. Although the Commission several times confirmed this undertaking during the recent
debates in Parliament on the occasion of the revision of the pharmaceutical legislation, the obligation to
submit the draft paediatric regulation to an economic impact assessment once again raises the fear that
there will be further delays in the publication of the text. The imperative deadlines that the European
institutions will have to meet in 2004 could well delay the completion of this project.

Could the Council of the European Union undertake to deal with this subject as a matter of priority as
soon as the Commission has informed it of the regulatory proposals?

Reply

(13 May 2003)

As the Honourable Parliamentarian recalls, the Council has shown its interest for this subject in the
resolution of 14 December 2000 on paediatric medicinal products. In its resolution, the Council invited
the Commission to make appropriate proposals as soon as possible in the form of incentives, regulatory
measures or other supporting measures in respect of clinical research and development, taking account of
the ethical aspects of clinical trials on children, to ensure that new medicinal products for children and
medicinal products already on the market are fully adapted to the specific need of that population group,
and taking into account also the internationally acknowledged standards for the protection of minors with
regard to medical scientific research.

The Council awaits the Commission’s proposals with interest and will, then, deal with this important
dossier in a timely and effective manner.