WRITTEN QUESTION E-2023/03 by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission. Commercial relations between the Commission and GIM.
Date: 2003-06-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, Eurostat, award of contract, company structure, contract, geography, information processing, provision of services, services company, shareholder

C 58 E/122

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.3.2004

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(13 August 2003)

The Directive establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community
and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC, enables transfers of allowances within the internal market, and
a transfer of production capacities can,
therefore, be accompanied by a corresponding transfer of
allowances both within and across Member State borders during a trading period. It is also relevant in this
context that the annual allocation of allowances with respect to an installation can only be made to a
holder of a greenhouse gas emissions permit relating to that installation.

The Directive makes the operator of an installation accountable only for direct emissions released on-site.
Activities of operators to indirectly reduce greenhouse gas emissions do not fall under the scope of the
Directive. Therefore, if iron and steel groups recover blast-furnace gases in order to sell them to operators
of combustion installations, the gases are not emitted into the atmosphere at the site of those iron and
steel companies. If the gases later give rise to emissions from installations belonging to the electricity
sector, they will have to be taken into account there.

Emissions allowance trading is an instrument used to contribute to the implementation of the targets
accepted by the Community and its Member States under the Kyoto Protocol. The Community and the
Member States ratified the Kyoto Protocol in the knowledge that addressing climate change in this way
would involve certain costs at least in the short term. It is true that the United States as an important
trading partner has decided not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and that developing countries have no
emission limitation commitments under the Protocol. At the same time, other important trading partners
of the Union have undertaken emission limitation obligations under the Kyoto protocol, including for
example all the Accession Countries, Canada, Japan and Switzerland. These countries will hence equally
incur costs for meeting their Kyoto targets.

The Community emissions trading scheme is expected to reduce the costs for the Union economy of
implementing the obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by ensuring that emission reductions are achieved
where they are cheapest. On 23 July, the Commission presented to the Council and the Parliament a
proposal to allow credits from the project mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol (Joint Implementation,
Clean Development Mechanisms) to be converted into allowances under the Community scheme which
will lead to further significant cost savings. This proposal again underlines the Commission’s commitment
to the most cost-effective implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.

(2004/C 58 E/139)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2023/03

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(17 June 2003)

Subject: Commercial relations between the Commission and GIM

In her Written Question E-4099/97 (1), Mrs Winifred Ewing asked the Commission in early 1998 for
information about its commercial relations with Geographic Information Management (GIM), a company
with offices in Belgium and Luxembourg. In that Question, Mrs Ewing drew the Commission’s attention to
the fact that 99 % of GIM Belgium’s shares were owned by GIM Luxembourg and that 75 % of GIM
Luxembourg’s shares were owned by a company named Kival Consultants, located in the Bahamas.

Under Bahamian law, it is impossible to verify the shareholdership of the company and identify the major
shareholders.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the Commission has maintained its commercial relations with GIM.

Can the Commission indicate how many contracts it has awarded to GIM since 1998, the total value of
those contracts and the procedures in accordance with which the contracts were awarded?

6.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 58 E/123

Can it indicate whether GIM has carried out work on behalf of Eurostat?

Can it indicate whether it now knows the names of the owners hiding behind Kival Consultants?

Does the Commission still maintain, as it did when Mr Liikanen answered Mrs Ewing’s Question in 1988,
that companies which conceal details of ownership may not be excluded from the award of contracts,
since application of that criterion would be deemed to constitute discrimination?

(1) OJ C 196, 22.6.1998, p. 77.

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(1 October 2003)

Twelve public contracts have been awarded to Geographic Information Management (GIM) since 1998 for
commitments totalling EUR 1 028 693,40. Ten out of the twelve were awarded by invitation to tender
using an open procedure; two were awarded using a restricted procedure involving a call for expressions of
interest. Work was carried out on behalf of Eurostat under eleven of these twelve contracts.

The Environment DG has also concluded an additional contract, awarded by restricted procedure, for
EUR 35 000 and has paid EUR 199,08 under a contract with an expert connected to GIM.

Since 1997, the Regional Policy DG has concluded four contracts with GIM for a total of EUR 507 410.
These contracts (cid:1) for services in the field of transport statistics (cid:1) were awarded following an invitation to
tender using an open procedure. All these contracts have expired. Since 2002, Eurostat has taken charge of
the entire management of the contracts (commitments and payments) via a sub-delegation assigned to it by
the Regional Policy DG in December 2001. The last two payments on the last of the four contracts were
therefore made by Eurostat.

The Information Society DG has also concluded eighteen contracts with the company in question since
1998 for a total of EUR 219 877,47. Fifteen of these were ‘Task Contract Letters’ (cid:1) in other words, small
service contracts with a value of less than EUR 5 000 for assistance and expertise in connection with
evaluating proposals or reviewing projects. These contracts involved just a few days’ work. Companies are
entered on a list of potential contractors following a call for expressions of interest and project leaders
choose experts from companies on the list on the basis of their competence and technical know-how. The
other three contracts are for projects (cid:1) two for the eContent programme and its predecessor INFO 2000
and one for the Information Society Technologies programme under the fifth framework programme for
research and technological development. GIM was one of the project partners in these three cases. The
projects were selected following a call for proposals published in the Official Journal. Selection was by a
Commission decision, after consultation of external evaluators and the programme committee.

The Commission does not know the names of the owners of Kival Consultants. Companies that do not
supply details of ownership may not be excluded from the award of contracts for that reason alone.
Pursuant to Article 94a) of the new Financial Regulation, which entered into force on 1 January 2003,
there should be evidence of a conflict of interests before exclusion can be considered. As from that date,
Eurostat has required bidders, as part of the tender documentation, to sign a declaration to the effect that
they are not in a situation of conflict of interests.

OLAF has opened an investigation regarding GIM, which is still under way.