WRITTEN QUESTION P-2948/03 by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Whistleblowing provisions.
Date: 2003-10-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU control, European Anti-fraud Office, European official, corruption, duties of civil servants, fraud against the EU, servant (EU), statistics

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/197

(2004/C 78 E/0202)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2948/03

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(2 October 2003)

Subject: Whistleblowing provisions

How many people have used Commissioner Kinnock’s whistleblowing provisions since they were
announced?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(2 December 2003)

The whistleblowing procedure was put in place by the Commission as part of the reform in order to
enable and encourage officials and other staff to express their concern about any malfunctioning coming
to their attention while guaranteeing whistleblowers every protection.

Article 2 of the Commission Decision of 2 June 1999 (1) requires officials and other staff to inform their
Head of Service or Director-General, or the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) or Secretariat-General
direct, of any evidence giving rise to the presumption of the existence of possible cases of fraud.

The Commission decision of 4 April 2002 restates the obligation on all official or other staff to inform at
once their superiors, the Secretary-General or OLAF direct of any evidence they have suggesting some
illegal practice and also offers them the possibility of disclosing information outside the Commission or the
European Anti-fraud Office in certain well-defined circumstances.

The Commission does not collect general statistics about
the number of people having used the
whistleblowing procedure. OLAF receives information from a large number of sources which may include
whistleblowing by Community staff. However, the categories referred to in the OLAF activity report (see
http://europa.eu.int/comm/anti_fraud/reports/olaf/2002.en) make the distinction between Commission,
other institutions, freephone, etc but do not make it possible to link the incoming information via an
instrument put in place by the Commission with whistleblowing.

OLAF has told the Commission, concerning the information it receives, that since 1 June 1999, 76
investigations have been opened on the basis of allegations coming from ‘Commission information
sources’.

The Commission President announced to Plenary on 18 November that the Commission’s Action Plan
following the Eurostat affair will include provisions to strengthen information flows between OLAF and
the Commission.

(1) Commission Decision of 2 June 1999 concerning the terms and conditions for internal investigations in relation to
the prevention of fraud, corruption and any illegal activity detrimental to the Communities’ interests, OJ L 149,
16.6.1999.

(2004/C 78 E/0203)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2964/03

by Brigitte Langenhagen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(2 October 2003)

Subject: Digital recording equipment

Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2135/98 (1) stipulates that the Commission shall submit a proposal to
the Council and (in accordance with Article 251 of the EC Treaty) Parliament for an extension of the
deadlines for issuing driver cards (deadline 5 May 2004) and fitting digital recording equipment (deadline