WRITTEN QUESTION E-3187/03 by Geoffrey Van Orden (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Free movement of bankrupt persons in the EU.
Date: 2003-10-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: United Kingdom, civil law, financial solvency, free movement of persons, residence

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/237

In the event of a continuation of damage from the wreck, the Commission can accept new evidence up
until the moment it makes its proposal for an amending budget to Parliament and the Council. Further
updating, while the budgetary procedure is in progress,
is possible only if the two branches of the
budgetary authority agree. The Solidarity Fund regulation does not, however, allow the amount to be
raised once the grant has been made available.

(2004/C 78 E/0239)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3187/03

by Geoffrey Van Orden (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Free movement of bankrupt persons in the EU

(27 October 2003)

A person who has been declared bankrupt in the UK is free to live anywhere they wish in the UK.

Is a person who has been declared bankrupt in the UK free to live anywhere they wish in the EU in the
same way that a citizen not declared bankrupt would be able to?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(17 December 2003)

A Union citizen who has been declared bankrupt in the United Kingdom is free to live anywhere he/she
wishes in the territory of the Union if he/she fulfils the conditions applying to the right of residence under
Community legislation, i.e. being a worker or self-employed person or having adequate resources and
sickness insurance.

In this respect, Community legislation does not provide any specific limitation to the right of free
movement.

(2004/C 78 E/0240)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3192/03

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(28 October 2003)

Subject: Eurostat: clarification of President Prodi’s powers of intervention

The statements made by former Eurostat Director-General Yves Franchet about the recent events which
revealed serious irregularities in the running of Eurostat contracts suggest that Commissioners Solbes,
Kinnock and Schreyer were to blame since they were aware of possible cases of fraud.

Mr Franchet claims to have informed the Commissioners and President Prodi of his suspicions of
maladministration within the Statistical Office in September 2002. In any case, at the hearing before the
Conference of Presidents on 25 September 2003, Mr Prodi stated that he was informed of the seriousness
of the situation in May 2003.

The affair is now being investigated by OLAF, the French courts and the Commission itself with a view to
obtaining reliable evidence and establishing who was responsible.

Under new Article 217(4) of the Treaty of Nice, the power to ask a Commissioner to resign lies with the
President of the Commission.

Quite apart from their actual responsibility which remains to be proven, the conduct of the above-
mentioned Commissioners has been called into question, at least in terms of ‘maladministration’ and
‘negligence’, as defined in the ‘First report on allegations regarding fraud’ submitted by the EP’s Committee
of Independent Experts on 15 March 1999 at the time of the Santer scandal.