WRITTEN QUESTION P-0902/03 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Health spending.
Date: 2003-03-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: commitment of expenditure, health policy, health statistics

C 222 E/242

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

18.9.2003

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(25 April 2003)

On the basis of the information provided by the Honourable Member, the system does not seem to
contradict the provisions of Directive 95/46/CE (1) as regards its use for the purposes of safety at football
grounds and the surveillance of supporters.

As for the use of personal data for the purposes of commercial promotion by the Belgian Football
the Commission would refer to the content of Article 14 of Directive 95/46/EC. This
Association,
provision stipulates that the Member States shall grant the data subject the right to object to the processing
of personal data relating to him which the controller anticipates being processed for the purposes of direct
marketing. Alternatively, the same Article recognises that the data subject has the right to be informed
before personal data are disclosed for the first time to third parties or used on their behalf for the purposes
of direct marketing, as well as the right to object to such disclosures or uses.

The information supplied to the data subjects in the application form for the fan card system seems to be
in line with the content of this provision. The Commission would however point out that the wording
chosen (cid:1) i.e. ‘unless otherwise stated’ (‘sauf disposition contraire’ in French) (cid:1) is not very explicit and that
the data subject should be clearly informed of his right to object to the processing of his personal data for
commercial purposes. The Commission has drawn the attention of the Belgian data protection agency to
this matter.

Insofar as the data subject can effectively object to the use of personal data relating to him for purposes
other than safety at football grounds, the Commission does not consider this to be an ‘automatic’ re-use of
the data.

(1) Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of
individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (cid:1) OJ L 281,
23.11.1995.

(2003/C 222 E/271)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0902/03

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(17 March 2003)

Subject: Health spending

How much did the Commission spend on health in 2002? How much was spent by State and by
beneficiary (public bodies, companies, individuals)?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(14 April 2003)

In 2002, the amount spent on the public health programme was EUR 44 936 129 for the operating
appropriations
total of
EUR 46 356 047.

and EUR 1 419 918 for

appropriations, making

administrative

the

a

The Commission does not currently have any statistics on the breakdown of these amounts by Member
State or by type of organisation. In fact, many of the projects are submitted by coordinators of networks
which include organisations of varying status (public and private) based in different Member States. This is
an important aspect of the Community added-value of these projects.

The Honourable Member may wish to consult the following website for a description of each of the eight
programmes and projects on health-related issues:
www.europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_overview/previous_programme/Previous_programme_en.htm.