WRITTEN QUESTION E-1769/03 by Dominique Vlasto (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Compensation from the IOPC Fund for the damage caused by the Prestige disaster.
Date: 2003-05-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, indemnification, international convention, oil pollution

C 33 E/168

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.2.2004

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(16 July 2003)

The above mentioned company has not been financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) in the framework
of any Operational Programme in the period 2000-2006.

With regard to the application of Council Directive 94/45/EC of 22 September 1994 on the establishment
of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale
groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees, the Commission would
remind the Honourable Member that negotiations on the establishment of such a body are begun only at
the written request of 100 employees or their representatives in at least two Member States or on an
initiative of the central management of the groups of undertakings in question. It is not, therefore, up to
the Commission to encourage these negotiations, which require only that those benefiting from the rights
created by the Directive indicate their interest.

(2004/C 33 E/167)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1769/03

by Dominique Vlasto (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 May 2003)

Subject: Compensation from the IOPC Fund for the damage caused by the Prestige disaster

The Prestige sank on 13 November 2002. On 9 May the IOPC Fund announced that the victims of the
Prestige oil slick would initially receive 15 % of the total estimated damages, which amount to almost
EUR 1 billion.

The author of this question shares the indignation of the victims, who, six months after the disaster, are
being offered derisory compensation for the damage and work it caused. In the Erika II legislative package
the Commission proposed setting up a Community compensation fund, the COPE Fund. This text was
adopted by Parliament at first reading in June 2001 and appears to have been held up in the Council ever
since.

1.

Can the Commission say whether any progress has been made on this proposal?

2.
Tax-payers in the Member States are going to have to fund the remaining compensation for the
damage caused by the Prestige wreck. The COPE Fund would have been a way of remedying this
scandalous situation. As the COPE Fund has not been established, owing to being held up in the Council,
can the Commission propose alternative solutions?

Negotiations are currently under way in IOPC on the level of compensation to be paid and the
3.
compensation procedure to be used in the case of oil slick damage. Does the Commission consider the
raised ceiling for IOPC Fund compensation to be high enough?

(2004/C 33 E/168)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1771/03

by Jean-Pierre Bébéar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(21 May 2003)

Subject: IOPC Fund (cid:1) marine pollution

The derisory offer of compensation issued by the IOPC Fund following the ‘Prestige’ disaster has led me,
and many others, to question whether this compensation fund is of any real use.

The Commission has expressed the wish to remedy the shortcomings of the IOPC Fund by setting up a
EUR 1 billion compensation fund for the benefit of the various victims affected when oil tankers go down.