WRITTEN QUESTION E-1868/03 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Equity culture.
Date: 2003-06-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: euro area, financial market, financial statistics, market capitalisation, stock-exchange listing, type of business

C 78 E/52

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(8 July 2003)

While the Commission has monitored developments in the euro-denominated corporate bond market
since 1999, the impact of these developments on the average cost of capital to euro-area enterprises has
not been estimated directly. The cost of capital is the result of a range of interacting factors, both cyclical
and structural, so that it is difficult to isolate the individual impact of increased access to direct debt
financing in euro. Nevertheless, the availability of a larger and more liquid euro-denominated corporate
bond market has widened the financing opportunities for euro-area enterprises and evidence suggests that
this has resulted in lower financing costs. A recent study undertaken on behalf of the Commission (1)
estimates that the rapid growth in the stock of euro-denominated corporate bonds since 1999 has reduced
the corporate credit spread over the government benchmark by about 90 basis points and that (cid:1)
if integration and growth in the market were to continue at a similar pace (cid:1) a further reduction of 40
basis points in corporate financing costs would be possible. The study also concludes that gross debt
issuance costs in the euro area have already fallen significantly toward a level broadly in line with the
United States. With regard to trading costs,
for euro-
denominated corporate debt is still very much in its infancy but that as the primary market grows and
new, more transparent and liquid trading platforms develop, these costs are likely to fall in the future.
More generally, an efficient corporate bond market (cid:1) in providing an attractive alternative source of
financing (cid:1) can be expected to stimulate efficiency improvements in the equity market and the banking
sector also.

the secondary market

the study notes that

(1) See Chapter 4 of the Final Report on ‘Quantification of the Macro-Economic Impact of Integration of EU Financial
Markets’ to the European Commission (cid:1) Directorate-General for the Internal Market, by London Economics in
association with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Oxford Economic Forecasting, November 2002, available at: http://
europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/finances/mobil/overview.htm.

(2004/C 78 E/0050)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1868/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 June 2003)

Subject: Equity culture

Will the Commission give the figures for the number of quoted companies in each Member State in each
year for the last ten years? Will it also estimate the market capitalisation at the end of each year as a
percentage of GDP? Will it further give the aggregate for the euro-area?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2003)

The degree of detailed information may vary from country to country and may also vary from statistical
sources on the stock markets. Sometimes, problems that can arise with provided data series where
presence of gaps simply means a lack of data.

The sources of information used: World Federation of Exchanges, FESE, national institutions, Eurostat.
When the data of the international organisations differ or are incomplete Eurostat turns to the data of the
national institutions.

In order to increase the comparability level of the statistical information presented with other sources,
a definition of the market capitalisation and of the number of listed companies are given below:

(cid:1) The number of companies which have shares listed on a specific exchange, split into domestic and
foreign, and excluding investment funds, unit trusts is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to
Parliament’s Secretariat. A company with several classes of shares is counted just once.

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/53

(cid:1) A table with market capitalisation is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s
Secretariat. Stock market capitalisation (end of period, in billion ECU/euro, and percentage of gross
domestic product (GDP) only annual figures) is calculated by multiplying the volume of shares quoted
on the stock market by their market value. The series covers common and preferred shares, and shares
without voting rights. Excluded are investment
funds; rights, warrants, convertible instruments;
options, futures; listed foreign shares; companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other
listed companies. Euro-zone and EU-15 aggregates are the sum of the individual countries available.
Since 2001, the Euronext series replace the national series of Belgium, France and the Netherlands in
the calculation of the European aggregates. From 2002, onwards this is also the case for Portugal. The
United States data comprises the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges, while Japan data comprises only the
Tokyo exchange. Cross-country comparisons should be treated with caution, because of different
national definitions, reporting rules and calculation methods. On 22 September 2000, the stock
exchanges of Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam merged to form a new stock exchange called Euronext.
End 2002 the stock exchanges of Oporto and Lisbon joint also Euronext. The data of this series are
consolidated. Historical series start in general in 1991 apart from the series of Portugal, Ireland and
Greece. The series of the Netherlands and Portugal stop in January 2002.

(2004/C 78 E/0051)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1900/03

by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Nitrate pollution in the Valencia region

(6 June 2003)

Despite the various procedures for non-compliance which the Commission has initiated and the various
judgments issued by the European Court of Justice (1), Spain (and, in particular, the Valencia Regional
Government) repeatedly fails to meet the standards applicable to water and nitrates.

According to data recently published by Miliarium (2), a total of 192 aquifers in various parts of the
Community are still at risk of nitrate pollution, with Valencia province (with 152 ‘blackspots’) being the
worst affected.

Discharges of harmful substances (mainly nitrates) originate in factories, urban-waste dumps and intensive
farming practices involving excessive use of manure and fertilisers.

Since a quantity of nitrate exceeding 10 milligrammes per litre is (according to some estimates) sufficient
to produce a detrimental effect on human health, Miliarium’s recent measurements (cid:1) according to which
the 192 aquifers affected contain between 50 and 100 milligrammes per litre (cid:1) are particularly worrying.
In this connection, particular attention should be drawn to the disturbing measurements taken from the
waters of the river Vinalopó, where the nitrate concentration has been found to exceed 100 milligrammes
per litre.

Since the European Court of Justice judgments have had little effect on the attitudes of Spain’s central and
regional authorities in this area, and since people’s health is being put at risk (whereby the right to public
health as laid down in the treaties is not being upheld), what further action is the Commission intending to
take in order to ensure that water-quality standards are met in the Valencia region and in Spain as a
whole?

(1) Case C-214/96 for failure to comply with Directive 76/464/EEC; Case C-71/97 and Case C-274/98 for failure to

comply with Directive 91/676/EEC.

(2) http://www.miliarium.com/monografías/nitratos.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(4 August 2003)

The Commission was not aware of the data published by Miliarium and mentioned by the Honourable
Member in this written question. However, this data will be fully considered in light of the information
already in its possession in order to be able to verify whether the Spanish Authorities are correctly
applying Council Directive 91/676/EEC of 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against
pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources (1).