WRITTEN QUESTION E-1786/03 by Claude Moraes (PSE) to the Commission. Contact with Roma NGOs and governmental agencies.
Date: 2003-05-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Roma, accession to the European Union, cooperation policy, international relations, non-governmental organisation, world organisation

C 70 E/64

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

20.3.2004

(2004/C 70 E/066)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1786/03

by Claude Moraes (PSE) to the Commission

(28 May 2003)

Subject: Contact with Roma NGOs and governmental agencies

What contact has the European Commission had recently with Roma NGOs and governmental agencies in
the accession countries?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(27 June 2003)

The Commission is (cid:1) in Brussels as well as through its Delegations in the Candidate Countries (cid:1) in
contact with a number of Roma non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as e.g. the ‘International
Romani Union’, the ‘Roma National Congress’, the ‘European Roma Rights Centre’, the ‘Pakiv European
Roma Fund’ and the ‘European Roma Information Office’ in Brussels. In addition, the Commission has
contacts with NGOs in the field of human rights,
that also cover Roma issues, such as ‘Amnesty
International’, the ‘Open Society Institute’ or ‘Project for Ethnic Relations’. In a number of cases, NGOs
working on Roma projects are funded in the framework of PHARE, such as e.g. in the Czech Republic
‘Romodrom’ or ‘Athinganoi’, or in Romania ‘Romani Criss’, the ‘Resource Centre for Roma Communities in
Romania’ and others.

In the context of preparing the Regular Reports on the candidate countries’ progress towards accession, the
Commission has also been regularly contacting NGOs dealing with Roma issues, as well as other
intergovernmental organisations such as the Council of Europe or the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In the framework of the accession preparations, discussions with representatives of the governments from
Candidate Countries and the Commission are regularly taking place on various levels. In addition, regular
meetings in the context of the Europe Agreements provide for the possibility to raise Roma issues with
representatives
the
Association Committees with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which are chaired by the
Commission, will take place in June and July 2003.

the Candidate Countries. For example, meetings of

from the governments of

(2004/C 70 E/067)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1846/03

by Mario Borghezio (NI) to the Commission

(3 June 2003)

Subject: Incompatibility between the holding of a Community decision-making office and membership of

the Bilderberg Club and the Trilateral Commission

The Bilderberg Club (cid:1) one of the most secretive organisations wielding covert globalist power (cid:1) can
count amongst its members and/or assiduous participants at its closed meetings the Commission President,
Roman Prodi, and the following Commissioners: Mario Monti, Erkki Liikanen, Frederik Bolkestein, Pedro
Salbes Mira, Günther Verheugen, Chris Patten and Antonio Vitorino. A further associate is Tommaso
Padoa Schioppa of the European Central Bank.

Furthermore, some of the above are also members of the Trilateral Commission, another covert centre of
globalist power.

Will the Commission say whether the Commissioners in question can confirm the above information and,
if so, whether they consider that, in the interests of transparency, they should disclose membership of such
bodies in their official CVs?

Does the Commission not think that secret affiliations of this nature may lead to serious and irremediable
conflicts of interest between Commission decisions and the purposes, objectives and secret (or, at least,
highly confidential) decisions of the Bilderberg Club and the Trilateral Commission (cid:1) non-democratic
bodies whose members are co-opted and which are not subject either to the ballot box or to scrutiny by
the media?