WRITTEN QUESTION E-3060/03 by Philip Claeys (NI) to the Commission. Cost of Turkey joining the EU.
Date: 2003-10-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Türkiye, accession to the European Union, costing, ratio

C 84 E/48

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

(2004/C 84 E/0053)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3053/03

by María Valenciano Martínez-Orozco (PSE) to the Commission

(9 October 2003)

Subject: HIV/AIDS in China

On 8 September 2003 Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report entitled Locked Doors: People
Living with HIV/AIDS in China, which describes how discrimination, lack of information, cover-ups, and
lack of treatment for many patients are causing the spread of HIV/AIDS in China.

On 30 September 2003 the Spanish daily El Pais published the dramatic story of Zhang Xiaqing, an HIV-
positive 11-year old, who contracted the virus from a blood transfusion in 1995 at the age of nine.
His parents cannot afford treatment and he has been refused admission to school. His case is one of more
than 250 000 according to Beijing (cid:1) but more than one million according to organisations working to
combat the disease (cid:1) where infections were caused during the 1990s as a result of blood-purchasing
networks in Henan province.

Although China has admitted the blood transfusions scandal and taken a number of measures, according
to HRW it still allows provincial and local authorities to cover up the situation, preventing NGOs and
journalists from visiting people with HIV/AIDS. According to the report, no officials have been prosecuted
for the scandal, although some of those who tried to reveal its existence have been arrested for breaching
state secrets.

The United Nations has warned that 10 million people will be infected by 2010 unless urgent measures
are taken.

Will the Commission include on the agenda for the Fifth EU-China Summit, to be held at the end of
October, the question of respect for the human rights of these sick and abandoned people and attempt to
ensure at least that cases are brought to court in order to establish responsibility so that compensation can
be paid to these persons, who will otherwise be inexorably condemned to suffer and die for want of
treatment?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(7 November 2003)

As stated in its recent Communication on EU-China relations, the Commission believes that the current
spread of AIDS in the country poses a serious threat to China’s long-term development and accordingly
requires determined action. The Commission itself is engaged in efforts to combat the epidemic through its
financing, from 1997 to the present day, of a new vaccines testing programme coordinated by the
University of Regensburg’s Institute for Medical Microbiology.

The Commission shares the Honourable Member’s concerns regarding the situation of AIDS sufferers in
China. At the 6th EU-China Summit in Beijing on 30 October, the Union once again raised the general
issue of human rights. However, the bilateral dialogue on human rights conducted by the EU with China
since 1996, whose next session is in Beijing on 25/26 November, seems the most appropriate forum for
tackling the subject of AIDS victims.

(2004/C 84 E/0054)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3060/03

by Philip Claeys (NI) to the Commission

(17 October 2003)

Subject: Cost of Turkey joining the EU

The Osteuropa-Institut, the Munich-based Institute for East European Studies, estimates that Turkey’s
membership of the European Union would cost EUR 5,2 billion a year at the start of EU membership.
The amount would increase to EUR 14 billion a year by the time Turkey was fully integrated into the
Union.

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/49

Has the Commission seen the preliminary results of this study?

Has the Commission made its own calculations of the cost of Turkey joining the EU? If so, what were its
findings? How do the costs of Turkey’s membership compare with those for the ten new accession States?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(7 November 2003)

The Commission is aware of the study to which the Honourable Member refers but has not seen the
detailed results. Such estimates depend on a large number of hypotheses, such as the timing of possible
accession, rates of economic development and the outcome of accession negotiations. The Commission
considers that it is not possible to define in detail a number of hypotheses which would be necessary for
any such calculation.

(2004/C 84 E/0055)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3064/03

by Bernd Lange (PSE) and Wilhelm Piecyk (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Vehicle emissions outside of the test cycle

(17 October 2003)

Pollution readings carried out by the German Federal Environmental Agency have shown that cars usually
considered to be particularly environmentally friendly only keep within the EU’s strict exhaust emission
limits up to a speed of 120 km/h. Beyond that, however, emission levels rise many times over, proving
that the cars concerned are not so environmentally friendly after all.

Is the Commission aware of this phenomenon?

Does the Commission intend to take account of emissions outside of the test cycle in its anticipated
proposal for a future Euro V category of exhaust emission limits for cars, and will it restrict the extent to
which the applicable limits are exceeded?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(14 November 2003)

The Commission is aware that some motor vehicles can modulate the emission performance in certain
driving conditions that are not covered by the present type-approval emissions test.

Emissions outside the test cycle are one of the issues on the agenda of the working group on Euro V
standards that has been set up under the Motor Vehicles Emissions Group.

(2004/C 84 E/0056)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3104/03

by Marianne Eriksson (GUE/NGL),
Piia-Noora Kauppi (PPE-DE) and Joke Swiebel (PSE) to the Council

Subject: Funding EQUAL projects and sexual orientation discrimination

(22 October 2003)

Article 13 of the EC Treaty, Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and Article 1 of Directive
2000/78/EC (1) establishing a general
framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation