WRITTEN QUESTION E-1500/03 by Florence Kuntz (EDD) to the Commission. Safeguarding the Iraqi archaeological heritage.
Date: 2003-05-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Iraq, aid policy, art trade, heritage protection, illicit trade, import restriction, museum, war damage

C 84 E/724

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

(2004/C 84 E/0813)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1457/03

by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

Subject: Euratom/Distortions in the electricity market

(29 April 2003)

1.
The Common Position adopted by the Council on the revised Electricity Market Directive states that
the lack of a level playing field in generation is one of the shortcomings of the EU’s electricity market. The
Euratom Loan Facility can only be used for nuclear projects. Why is this not perceived as a market
distortion?

2.

Are there any circumstances in which loans can be granted for non-nuclear projects?

3.
Do the Euratom loans, or the grants awarded by either PHARE or TACIS, have to comply with the
public procurement principles, as described in Directives 1992/50/EWG (1), 1993/36/EWG (2) and 1993/
37/EWG (3)?

(1) OJ L 209, 24.7.1992, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 54.

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(20 June 2003)

1.
The fact that this is a dedicated facility does not mean that it distorts the market, since other facilities
are available for ‘competitors’. For Member States this is clearly the case, through European Investment
Bank (EIB) activities and those of commercial banks. For third countries there are also the EIB and the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for example, which finance other energy
sources. It is to be noted that Euratom loans are given at the market rates available to the Commission.

As the legal basis for the facility is the Euratom Treaty, Euratom loans can only be granted to nuclear

2.
projects.

3. Within the Member States, projects for which loans are granted are governed by the aforementioned
Directives to the extent that they are carried out by awarding authorities to which these Directives apply.
Other operators may fall under Council Directive 93/38/EEC of 14 June 1993 coordinating the
procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications
sectors. In third countries, the respective domestic law applies. All grants provided by PHARE and TACIS
in any third country have to comply with the public procurement principles described in the applicable
Community Directives. However, the detailed rules laid down in the Directives only apply in Member
States.

(2004/C 84 E/0814)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1500/03

by Florence Kuntz (EDD) to the Commission

(5 May 2003)

Subject: Safeguarding the Iraqi archaeological heritage

The bombs that have been raining down on Mesopotamia since 20 March and the destruction and looting
of the Baghdad Archaeological Museum remind us that Iraq’s archaeological heritage has since 1991 been
in peril.

Apart from the destruction of archaeological sites during the Gulf War there has been the looting, the
departure of foreign archaeological missions, the abandonment of digs and trafficking with the West in
stolen property.

3.4.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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The American military campaign of the past three weeks has brought about the collapse of the Iraqi
regime. In the absence of a government, one can only wonder who is now protecting the seven national
museums and some 10 000 archaeological sites throughout the country.

How does the European Union wish to show its support for the Iraqi people and help them protect their
exceptional heritage?

How does the European Union intend to mobilise the Member States against the illegal trade in stolen
property?

(2004/C 84 E/0815)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1509/03

by Lucio Manisco (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 April 2003)

Subject: Sacking of Iraq’s cultural and artistic heritage (cid:1) the role of the European Union

The sacking of the National Archaeological Museum in Baghdad and other museum buildings in Iraq as
well as the devastation of the country’s libraries and historical archives by vandals, but also and above all
by professional thieves clearly in the pay of Western antique dealers, began in Baghdad on the night of
10 April 2003 and after a pause started again on a vast scale in other cities and at archaeological sites in
Iraq between 14/15 April 2003.

As is reported in the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph (20 April 2003), many of the artefacts taken
(around 179 thousand in Baghdad alone) are already being offered for sale on various Internet sites. This is
a terrible tragedy for the whole of mankind and one compared by the leading US archaeologist Paul
Zimansky to the fire that destroyed the library in Alexandria.

1. Will the Commission condemn these events as a flagrant violation, by the coalition forces on the
ground in Iraq, of the Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in
the Event of Armed Conflict, and of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the
Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property?

issued on 17 April 2003 by
2. What concrete support will the Commission provide to the call
Dr Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of Unesco, to the international community, the UN Security
Council and the governments of the states bordering Iraq for all states to adopt the requisite ‘emergency
legal and administrative measures’ to prevent the importation, trafficking or passage through their territory
of any cultural, archaeological or bibliographical object from Iraq, and to enforce the confiscation and
restitution of stolen artefacts to Iraq, not least through criminal penalties under the laws of individual
countries?

3. Will the Commission ask the EU Member States to prohibit the legal and illegal trade in any artefacts
originating from the area that was once Mesopotamia for a minimum period of at least five years?

4. Will the President of the Commission and Commissioners Lamy, Patten, Vitorino and Bolkestein, in
the areas for which they are competent, report to the European Parliament at its plenary sitting of 12 to
15 May 2003 on the measures adopted to end this destruction?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-1500/03 and P-1509/03
given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(27 May 2003)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to the replies it gave to Oral Questions H-0264/03
by Mr Manisco and H-0274/03 by Mrs Zorba during question time at Parliament’s May 2003 part
session (1).

(1) Written answer of 13.5.2003.