WRITTEN QUESTION E-2625/03 by Michel-Ange Scarbonchi (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Establishment of a European civil protection corps.
Date: 2003-09-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Eurocorps, European cooperation, civil defence, man-made disaster, natural disaster

C 70 E/120

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

20.3.2004

Reply

(5 December 2003)

The Council has no knowledge of the information reported by the Honourable Members.

The Council is not involved in the negotiations on the draft Constitutional Treaty, which fall within the
purview of the Conference of Representatives of the Governments of the Member States.

(2004/C 70 E/122)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2625/03

by Michel-Ange Scarbonchi (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Establishment of a European civil protection corps

(2 September 2003)

The fires which recently swept through Europe, destroying several thousand hectares of vegetation,
highlighted the chronic lack of forest fire prevention and control resources. The Commission must respond
to such disasters with the utmost urgency.

While the existence of a European civil protection centre in which the EU Member States plus Iceland,
Norway and Liechtenstein are involved and the setting up on 18 August 2002 of a European Solidarity
Fund are a cause for some hope, given the devastating impact which fires have on the communities and
local councils concerned and the damage they cause to the environment and economic activities such as
forestry and tourism, fire-fighting resources need to be stepped up and new prevention and intervention
rules need to be laid down at European level.

The management of forests and other natural resources, which cover 60 million hectares in 25 countries
in the Mediterranean area, must remain an economic and social priority. The establishment of a European
civil protection corps would enable such disasters to be dealt with more effectively.

There are many arguments in favour of a new administrative and technical entity, which could be placed
under the supervision of the European Parliament and under the responsibility of the competent national
authorities, given that civil protection falls within the sphere of responsibility of the Member States.

In the run-up to the forthcoming enlargement, this would send out a strong signal in support of European
the
forests. What are the Commission’s views on this proposal? Can it
establishment of a European civil protection corps?

take action in support of

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(23 October 2003)

The Commission is already active in the field of civil protection. Following a Council Decision,
a Community mechanism to facilitate reinforced cooperation in civil protection assistance interventions (1)
has been set up, which provides a focal point for the 29 participating countries with a view to closer
coordination of civil protection in and outside the European Union.

The Civil Protection Response Centre has been operational 24 hours a day since 1 January 2002. It has the
task of facilitating European cooperation in emergencies. When assistance is requested, the centre can call
immediately upon the resources of the participating countries to deal with all types of major emergencies.
The centre played a very active role in dealing with the recent fires in Europe, deploying all the means
available under its mandate.

The idea of creating a European civil protection corps needs to be examined in detail to assess its
effectiveness properly.
In September 2003, the Commission started to consider whether it might be
appropriate to set up a European civil protection force as part of disaster response action to be taken by
the Community.

20.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 70 E/121

Lastly, the Commission aims to continue its support for Member States to implement forest fire prevention
measures. These measures were previously coordinated and financed by Council Regulation (EEC)
No 2158/92 (2), which expired on 31 December 2002. In future, prevention measures in this field will be
supported under Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/99 (3) on rural development. The forest fire information
system will be part of the ‘Forest Focus’ Regulation, which is still under political debate.

(1) Council Decision 2001/792/EC, Euratom of 23 October 2001 establishing a Community mechanism to facilitate

reinforced cooperation in civil protection assistance interventions, OJ L 297, 15.11.2001.

(2) Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the Community’s forests against fire,

OJ L 217, 31.7.1992.

(3) Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European
Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations, OJ L 160,
26.6.1999.

(2004/C 70 E/123)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2628/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(2 September 2003)

Subject: Follow-up on the ‘Resolution on sexual violence against women, particularly Catholic nuns’

adopted by the European Parliament on 5 April 2001

On 5 April 2001 the European Parliament adopted a ‘Resolution on sexual violence against women,
particularly Catholic nuns’ (B5-0261, 0272, 0280 and 0298/2001) (1), which referred, among other things,
to the following:

(a)

the report in the US periodical the National Catholic Reporter indicating that a large number of
Catholic nuns had been raped by priests in at least 23 countries;

(b) confirmation by the Holy See that it was aware of cases of rape and sexual abuse of women, including
nuns, by Catholic priests, because at least five reports on this subject had been submitted to the
Vatican since 1994, and according to those reports many of the nuns raped were also compelled to
have abortions or resign, and in some cases became infected with HIV/AIDS.

In adopting the resolution, the European Parliament called:

(a)

for those responsible for those crimes to be arrested and brought to justice;

(b) on the judicial authorities of the 23 countries cited in the reports to ensure that all appropriate

judicial action was taken to establish the truth about the cases of violence against women;

(c) on the Holy See to take all allegations of sexual abuse within its organisations seriously, to cooperate

with the judicial authorities and to remove the perpetrators from office;

(d) on the Holy See to reinstate those female officials who had been removed from their posts for
drawing their supervisors’ attention to such abuses and to afford the victims the necessary protection
from and compensation for any discrimination which might ensue;

(e)

for the content of the five reports cited by the National Catholic Reporter to be published in full; and