WRITTEN QUESTION E-2177/03 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Procurement.
Date: 2003-06-30
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: economic indicator, economic statistics, foreign enterprise, intra-EU trade, public contract

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/389

In the field of plant protection for agriculture export crops, the Commission has worked in close
collaboration with its partner countries/regions in three main directions (see details in Annex 2, sent direct
to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat).

In the field of animal sanitation the main areas of the Commission’s interventions have been in the fishery
products’ sanitation and in combating cattle diseases (see details in Annex 3, sent direct to the Honourable
Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat).

The Commission, in response to the new ‘Food and Feed Controls’ Regulation (currently before the Council
and Parliament under the co-decision procedure), is launching a feasibility study to assess the impact of the
new Regulation and to define the ways to support the ACP States in the most cost-effective and sustainable
way. Moreover, the forthcoming mid-term reviews of the ACP State and regional strategies will provide an
opportunity to assess whether more resources should be devoted to meeting Union standards of plant and
animal health, within the available resources of the EDF.

(1) COM(2001) 341 final.

(2004/C 88 E/0395)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2177/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(30 June 2003)

Subject: Procurement

Will the Commission update its estimates of the proportion of the annual value of public contracts (cid:1)
broken down by capital and current spending (cid:1) that are let to non-resident companies in each Member
State?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(4 August 2003)

In reply to the earlier written question E-0563/03 from the Honourable Member on public
procurement (1), the Commission provided estimates of the value of direct and indirect intra-Community
imports as a percentage of total procurement in 1998, provided by a business survey.

It also indicated that it was pursuing the possibility of incorporating this survey within the framework of
the structural business statistics programme carried out by Eurostat together with the Member States’
statistical
institutes have not proved willing to incorporate such a
survey within this programme and the Commission is not so far in a position to update these estimates.

institutes. Member States’ statistical

All the evidence suggests that within the Union public procurement market the number and value of direct
imports, or public contracts let to non-resident companies, remains low, at a comparable level with earlier
figures. Current work being undertaken for the Commission should provide some new data regarding cross
border activity, prices, and the participation of small and mediu- sized enterprises in public procurement
markets. For example, initial results of a recent pilot panel study of both suppliers to public authorities and
public authorities themselves, undertaken for the Commission, suggests that indirect imports now account
for an increased amount of overall public procurement at around 14 %. If confirmed, this would be a
marked increase over the estimate of 8,5 % in 1998.

C 88 E/390

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

The preliminary results of this work, which still remain to be analysed in detail and confirmed, also
suggest, that foreign owned subsidiaries, who are significant players in many public procurement markets,
have had a rate of success in winning tenders comparable to that of domestic suppliers. The results also
indicate a continued active interest on the part of Union firms in bidding for public procurement contracts
in Member States other than their own.

The Commission will be happy to keep the Honourable Member informed of the final results of this work,
which should be available by October 2003 in time to contribute to the annual report on the functioning
of Community product and capital markets.

(1) OJ C 330 E, 21.11.2000.

(2004/C 88 E/0396)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2199/03

by Marco Pannella (NI) to the Commission

(27 June 2003)

Subject: Imprisonment in Cuba, in inhuman and degrading conditions, of 75 opposition figures sentenced

by show trial in April 2003, and the particular case of Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello

Knowing that:

(cid:1) in Cuba in April 2003, 75 opposition figures (intellectuals and independent journalists) received

sentences following a show trial;

(cid:1) human Rights Watch has said that the only crime committed by these prisoners was to promote ideas

which are forbidden in Cuba;

(cid:1) the one woman member of this group is Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello (aged 58), the director of the
Cuban Institute of Independent Economists named after Manuel Sánchez Herrero. She is also a writer,
economist and political activist;

(cid:1) martha Beatriz Roque Cabello was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment and is being kept under a
maximum-security regime in the Manto Negro jail, in a windowless, 1,5 m by 3 m cell infested by
rodents and cockroaches, with only a hole for her personal necessities and the light permanently on,
and is obliged to drink foul water;

(cid:1) she is now suffering from severe rheumatic ailments and a stomach ulcer, and has high blood
pressure; the entire left-hand side of her body is paralysed; since April, she has lost more than 14 kilos
and has been denied proper medical care and the drugs needed for treatment;

(cid:1) ms Roque Cabello is well known in Cuban dissident circles:

in 2002 the New York Academy of
Sciences awarded her the Human Rights for Scientists prize, and she has recently been declared a
prisoner of conscience by a number of international organisations. Since the 1980s she has been a
member of the Transnational Radical Party.

The Commission:

(cid:1) is it aware of these facts? If so, what initiatives has it taken, or what initiatives does it intend to take,
vis-à-vis the Cuban authorities to secure the release of the 75 prisoners or, at all events, to ensure that
they are guaranteed conditions of imprisonment that are compatible with fundamental human rights;

(cid:1) has it asked for the prisoners (cid:1) and especially and immediately Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello (cid:1) to be
visited by a delegation from the EU and any other relevant and recognised international organisation?
If not, when does it intend to do so?