WRITTEN QUESTION E-2669/03 by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission. ELSA laboratory — transport safety (JRC Ispra).
Date: 2003-09-10
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Joint Research Centre, organisation of research, research body, transport safety

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/149

(2004/C 78 E/0154)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2669/03

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(10 September 2003)

Subject: ELSA laboratory (cid:1) transport safety (JRC Ispra)

The Commission recently decided to discontinue the work on transport safety being carried out by ELSA,
the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment, located at the Commission’s Joint Research Centre at
Ispra. The laboratory used to be considered the only one of its kind in Europe as regards size and potential
and over the years has proved extremely useful for the Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport. As
highlighted in the Commission White Paper of 2001, the transport sector and the related safety issues are
a priority for the European Union’s future work. For this reason the decision, vaguely justified by a lack of
support from the other directorates-general, is all the more worrying and deprives the Directorate-General
for Transport, and hence the Commission itself, of an important research instrument.

Can the Commission say:

1. what the logic is behind decisions of this kind, which adversely affect the work of the European Union

as a whole;

2. whether the closure means that alternative measures will be carried out at the Joint Research Centre to

continue to provide this important service for the businesses and population of the EU?

3.

Is the decision perhaps part of a move towards a gradual dismantling of the JRC, which year by year
seems to be losing its operational potential, because of a few reprehensible initiatives?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(17 October 2003)

The strategy developed by the Directorate General (DG) Joint Research Centre (JRC) for the European
Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA), a unit within the Institute for the Protection and Security of
the Citizen (IPSC), consists in focusing the Unit’s work on its core activity concerning the construction and
the earthquake engineering, thus maintaining and further developing JRC’s competence in these areas. This
strategy, will enable the Unit to fulfil the needs of DG Enterprise (ENTR) with respect to Eurocodes
research, to strengthen the collaboration with DG Environment (ENV) with respect to civil protection and
to develop work with national civil protection authorities. In particular, there currently is a contract in
preparation with the Italian Civil Protection Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Furthermore, the continuation of the ELSA reaction wall as a Marie Curie Training Site, the objective to
increase access of the European research community to ELSA, and the transfer of related know-how and
expertise to Enlargement Countries are fully in line with JRC’s role in the European Research Area. One
should therefore be reassured that the core scientific and technical competencies of ELSA are consolidated
and maintained at the highest level.

As far as car and transport safety is concerned, the JRC competence and infrastructure is not unique. Due
to the decreasing customer demand,
in particular from DG ENTR, and despite the White Paper on
Transport (1) published by the Commission, there is no longer a request for specific JRC support. In fact,
transport safety is a multi-disciplinary topic in which structural mechanics (cid:1) the field of expertise of ELSA
(cid:1) is only one of the relevant disciplines. It plays a major role essentially in passive safety studies (crash
worthiness of vehicles, pedestrian protection, safety of
road infrastructures). The Directive finally
proposed (2) by DG ENTR to increase the protection of pedestrians in accidents with passenger cars and
approved by the Commission in 2003 will be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 will enter into force in
2005 with the set of tests and values that was proposed by JRC in a technical study delivered in December
2000. Phase 2, with enhanced pass criteria, will enter into force from 2010 with the set of tests and values
proposed by the European Enhanced Vehicle Committee (EEVC). Originally, as a compromise between the
points of view of the ‘Association Européenne des Constructeurs Automobiles’ (ACEA) and EEVC on the
set of required tests, a monitoring committee was foreseen to follow the implementation of the Directive.

C 78 E/150

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

However, this approach has not been retained, and the final Directive does not include such a monitoring
Committee. This makes the continuation of the support role of JRC to DG ENTR inappropriate in this
matter. There will be feasibility studies to prepare the implementation of phase 2 and verify whether the
EEVC criteria can be really fulfilled and in economically viable conditions, but the ELSA team has not the
technical skills to do such work, since it requires long experience in car body design.

The phasing out of the transport safety activity in ELSA will
in fact result mainly in the closure of
automotive industry research at the Large Dynamic Test Facility, a bench for characterisation of materials
and structural components at ‘high deformation speed’. This test facility had been created in the context of
nuclear safety studies and is relevant for transport safety studies, but it has, however, remained very much
underused. There are of course other European laboratories equipped to do testing for automotive industry
research.

From the above, the Honourable Member should be reassured that there is no logic of dismantlement of
the JRC, on the contrary of reinforcement in key areas of relevance to Community policy support.

(1) COM(2001) 370 final.
(2) COM(2003) 67 final.

(2004/C 78 E/0155)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2678/03

by Caroline Jackson (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(10 September 2003)

Subject: 1991 Nitrates Directive

It is being argued that the 50 milligrammes per litre maximum level for nitrates in water in the 1991
Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC (1)) is out of date and that, for health reasons, the nitrates in water should
actually exceed that limit. Does the Commission have any observation to make on this claim, and is it
planning in any way to amend the Nitrates Directive which is still far from being fully implemented in
many Member States?

(1) OJ L 375, 31.12.1991, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(16 October 2003)

The Commission disagrees with the position that the standard of 50 milligram (mg) per litre of nitrates set
by the Nitrates Directive (1), which is one of the criteria to identify vulnerable zones, is out of date and that
for health reasons, nitrates in water should exceed that limit.

The recent revision of Council Directive 80/778/EEC of 15 July 1980 on the quality of water intended for
human consumption (2), Council Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 (3), which reviewed the
parametric values in accordance with the latest available scientific knowledge (e.g. World Health
Organisation (WHO) Guidelines, Scientific Committee on Toxicology and Ecotoxicology), confirmed for
nitrates the previous limit value of 50 mg per litre.

The precautionary value of 50 mg per litre is essential to prevent health effects, such as methaemoglobi-
naemia in infants. This disease, linked to high nitrate levels in drinking water, still exists both in Eastern
Europe (hundreds of cases) and in the United States, and the relatively low incidence in the countries of
Western Europe is in relation to the enforcement of strict limit values on nitrates over the last 20 years.