WRITTEN QUESTION E-1846/03 by Mario Borghezio (NI) to the Commission. Incompatibility between the holding of a Community decision-making office and membership of the Bilderberg Club and the Trilateral Commission.
Date: 2003-06-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commissioner, Universalism, code of conduct, duties of civil servants, political morality, rights of civil servants, secret society

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?

20.3.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 70 E/65

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(6 August 2003)

The Commission would refer to the answer it recently gave to Written Question E-1370/03 by Ms Patricia
McKenna (1) on the same subject.

As was explained in that answer, the status of member of the Bilderberg Club is not defined by the statutes
of the Club and occasional attendance at one or other meeting does not mean that a person can be
deemed to be a member of the Club, nor does it warrant a reference in the declaration of interests
provided for by the Code of Conduct for Commissioners.

Moreover, no Commissioner is a member of the Trilateral Commission, whose statutes exclude persons
holding public office from membership.

With regard to the last paragraph, which raises the question of a possible conflict of interest, it should be
pointed out that this is not the case as occasional attendance at meetings of outside bodies does not imply
that the person concerned shares their objectives or takes part in their decision-making processes.

(1) OJ C 268 E, 7.11.2003, p. 192.

(2004/C 70 E/068)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1865/03

by Anders Wijkman (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 June 2003)

Subject: National interpretation of EU legislation on protection of endangered animals

The scarlet macaw is a species of bird included on the EU’s list of endangered animals (Annex A).
EU legislation, which is based on and strengthens the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) seeks to protect wild plants and animals from extinction by
restricting and controlling trade therein.

The Swedish Board of Agriculture is the authority responsible for the implementation of the EU legislation
in Sweden. According to staff of the Board of Agriculture, EU rules may be interpreted in such a way that
a scarlet macaw which has lived in Sweden for fifty years, first in a pet shop and then in a tropical wildlife
centre, and whose origin is not documented, may no longer be displayed to the public but must be
impounded and possibly put down. However, the bird is ‘pre-convention’, i.e. it was imported into the
country before the entry into force of the EU legislation or CITES.
It should therefore be exempt.
Moreover, the interpretation of the Swedish Board of Agriculture runs counter to the spirit of the
legislation which is there to promote animal welfare.

Does the Commission consider that the Swedish Board of Agriculture has made a reasonable interpretation
of the EU’s legislation?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2003)

The primary purpose of CITES and of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 (1), which implements it in the
Community, is to protect wild species of flora and fauna from unsustainable trade.

The species listed on Appendix I of the Convention, which corresponds to Annex A of the Regulation, are
those most at risk. In view of this, commercial use of wild-caught specimens is prohibited. The scarlet
macaw is one of these species.