WRITTEN QUESTION E-1406/03 by Luigi Vinci (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Territorial employment pact at Lamezia Terme (Italy).
Date: 2003-04-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, Italy, administrative check, local employment initiative

7.11.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 268 E/197

In particular the decision to introduce vaccination shall be taken by the Commission in collaboration with
the Member State within the framework of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health
(Scofcah). Provided that fundamental interests of the Community are not jeopardized and as a matter of
urgency, the decision to introduce emergency vaccination around an outbreak may be taken by the
Member State concerned, following notification to the Commission. Such a decision has to be re-examined
further appropriate
by the Commission and within the Scofcah. The Commission may then adopt
measures on this matter.

Birds not intended for the production of meat or eggs for consumption or for restocking supplies of game
are explicitly not covered by the control measures laid down in Directive 92/40/EEC. However, if the
disease is detected in birds other than poultry kept for commercial purposes, the Member State concerned
shall inform the Commission of any measure it takes. The Commission may then adopt further appropriate
measures in the context of Council Directive 90/425/EEC (2) concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks
applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of
the internal market.

Indeed, in relation with the current outbreak of avian influenza in the Netherlands, the Commission has
already adopted a number of measures supplementing the minimum measures established in Directive 92/
40/EEC, including a very recent one on vaccination of birds kept in zoos (3).

(1) OJ L 167, 22.6.1992.
(2) OJ L 224, 18.8.1990.
(3) Decision being adopted by the Commission on 25 April 2003, OJ L 105, 26.4.2003.

(2003/C 268 E/220)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1406/03

by Luigi Vinci (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(23 April 2003)

Subject: Territorial employment pact at Lamezia Terme (Italy)

Knowing that:

(cid:1) Over the period 1996-2001, under the Structural Funds, 89 territorial employment pacts were
financed in the EU, among them that for Lamezia Terme (Italy), adopted via Decree No 948 of
29 January 1999 of the Italian Finance Ministry, on the basis of a total investment of approximately
EUR 48 million funding 66 business initiatives, 30 of them dispersed over the territory of Lamezia
Terme.

(cid:1) The company responsible for implementing the Pact is the consortium ‘Sviluppo ex-area Sir’, also

known as ‘LameziaEuropa’.

(cid:1) The projects funded concerned 49 new initiatives, 16 extensions and one reopening. Thirty seven
were in the manufacturing sector, 12 in the agri-industrial sector, 15 in the tourist sector and two in
the services sector.

(cid:1) 903 jobs were to be involved, 699 of them newly created.

(cid:1) The management of ‘LameziaEuropa’ claims success for the Pact, purely on the grounds that on
29 January 2003 the ‘Cassa Depositi e Prestiti’ savings bank granted a new tranche of financing to the
undertakings concerned.

(cid:1) Lamezia Terme has a high rate of unemployment, especially among women and young people, and
job security is increasingly under threat: employers are failing to honour their contracts, health and
safety rules are being flouted, and moonlighting is on the increase.

(cid:1) These circumstances of illegality are being exploited by organised crime in order to fund its own
activities. In consequence, businesses in the area are being forced into uncomfortably close relations
with local politicians, and one result of this has been the recent resignation of the municipal council.

C 268 E/198

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

7.11.2003

(cid:1) If there is to be proper monitoring of the investments made, job creation and full respect for the legal
procedures as laid down in the Pact need to be ensured by the institutions as a matter of priority.

Can the Commission provide information on:

1.

2.

3.

the amount invested to date;

the monitoring mechanisms adopted,
observance of their commitments;

including at EU level, with a view to verifying businesses’

the number of posts involved in each undertaking, and whether the possibility of those undertakings
employing ‘black labour’ can be excluded;

4.

the measures that will be taken if it is found that the commitments made are not being observed?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(26 May 2003)

The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that the territorial employment pact for
Lamezia Terme was financed not by the Structural Funds but by national resources.

The Commission is therefore not in a position to answer the Honourable Member’s questions.

(2003/C 268 E/221)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1436/03

by José Ribeiro e Castro (UEN) to the Commission

Subject: Women’s organisations (cid:1) budget item A-3046

(15 April 2003)

In reply to my Question E-0344/03 (1), on budget item A-3046 ‘Women’s organisations’, Commissioner
Diamantopoulou said that in 2002, two proposals had been received in response to the public invitation
and that only the project submitted by the Associazione IRENE had been selected for funding, on the basis
of transnationality and the financial situation of the proposals assessed.

What was the other women’s organisation, whose proposal was rejected? What did its project consist of?
What criteria were used for eliminating it? Why did the Commission decide to assign the entire available
annual funding to one body? Approaching the issue from another angle, how was the selection criterion
concerning ‘the financial situation of the proposals’ handled? Is it a question of co-funding? And if so, to
what extent?

(1) OJ C 161 E, 10.7.2003, p. 211.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(21 May 2003)

Further to the answer to the Honourable Member’s question No E-0344/03 (1), the Honourable Member is
informed that the rejected proposal received under open call for proposals No VP/2002/14 was from the
International Abolitionist Federation (IAF).

The objective of the IAF is to strengthen the SOS Trafficking network and the existing arrangements for
helping women victims of trafficking in Denmark, France, Italy and Slovakia. This was not judged to be
compatible with the aim of the call for proposals concerned, which was to fund a network bringing
together the main players involved in helping trafficking victims, with a view to boosting their capacity
and facilitating transnational exchanges and the transfer of information, experience and best practices.