WRITTEN QUESTION E-3216/03 by Antonios Trakatellis (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Disposal of hazardous waste in Greece and infringement of environmental legislation.
Date: 2003-10-31
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Greece, application of EU law, environmental law, hazardous waste, storage of waste, waste disposal, waste management, waste recycling

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concerning Community funding for Greek companies. According to the newspaper’s correspondent
(Mr Ambrose Evans-Prichard) the ‘letter claimed that alleged abuses at Eurostat were almost insignificant’
by comparison with those uncovered by OLAF regarding the awarding of contracts to a number of Greek
companies.

Was such a letter sent to Mr Kinnock? If so, who signed it and what was its exact content? Can the
Commission give a breakdown showing the precise amounts involved in these irregularities and which
Greek companies (by name) were involved? What action has been taken by the Commission and what
immediate measures will
it take to elucidate this affair which has shed an unfairly negative light on
Greece?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(23 December 2003)

An anonymous letter addressed to an Honourable Member and containing allegations of irregularities was,
quite properly, handed to the Member of the Commission in charge of Personnel and Administration,
Vice-President Kinnock, by that Honourable Member on 4 September 2003.

On the same day, following the established procedure, Mr Kinnock passed the anonymous letter to
Mr Brüner, Director-General of OLAF, for appropriate inquiry and follow-up and then informed the
Honourable Member of the action taken. Naturally, the Commission did not communicate the existence of
the letter to the press at any time.

OLAF proceeded to carry out an assessment which included (cid:1) ‘inter alia’ (cid:1) detailed examination of all the
files mentioned in the letter.

The outcome of this assessment by OLAF is that the allegations were unfounded. The Commission
considers that no reputation of an individual, or of a company, or (cid:1) a fortiori (cid:1) of a Member State
should suffer as a result of anonymous allegations of this kind when neither the investigations by OLAF,
nor the internal checks carried out by the relevant Directorate-General, have discovered any evidence to
substantiate the allegation.

The results of the OLAF examination were conveyed to the Honourable Member who gave the anonymous
letter to Mr Kinnock.

All information which might lead to detection of misconduct is treated seriously by the Commission and
given to the appropriate investigatory authorities. Misuse of the system for reporting alleged wrongdoing
does, however, waste the valuable time of
investigators and can discourage those who seek to
communicate legitimate concerns in a responsible way.

The Commission would, therefore, be interested in receiving any information which could assist with the
discovery of the identity of the anonymous letter writer.

(2004/C 78 E/0512)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3216/03

by Antonios Trakatellis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(31 October 2003)

Subject: Disposal of hazardous waste in Greece and infringement of environmental legislation

In reply to my question (P-2724/03 (1)) Commissioner Wallström indicated that an annual amount of
392 539 tonnes of hazardous waste was produced in Greece. She also indicated that the Commission did
not know where the disposal sites were located. This gives rise to legitimate concerns as to where these
hazardous wastes, which are put
the
accumulated quantities must total over one million tonnes.

into temporary storage, are in fact disposed of, given that

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1. Which authorities are responsible for issuing permits for the collection, transport and interim storage
of hazardous wastes, how many authorisations were issued and for what amounts?

Have centres been set up for the interim storage, processing,

2.
hazardous wastes in accordance with Directive 75/442/EEC (2)?

treatment and final disposal of

3. Where are hazardous wastes finally disposed of following interim storage and what measures are
being taken to comply with the ban on mixing different categories of hazardous waste or mixing
hazardous and non-hazardous waste (cid:1) in accordance with Directive 91/689/EEC (3), given that Greece
does not have suitable centres for the processing or disposal of hazardous wastes?

4. What steps will the Commission take as guardian of the Treaties and secondary legislation to ensure
compliance with Community legislation? How can it monitor disposal sites intended for non-hazardous
waste and verify the information provided by the Greek authorities in the light of constant allegations in
the Greek press regarding the unsupervised disposal of waste?

(1) OJ C 70 E, 20.3.2004, p. 132.
(2) OJ L 194, 25.7.1975, p. 39.
(3) OJ L 377, 31.12.1991, p. 20.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(17 December 2003)

Further to the reply to the Honourable Member’s written question P-2724/03 (1), the Commission would
like to draw the attention of the Honourable Member to the following:

1. According to the information provided by the Greek Authorities to the Commission in the context of
reporting under Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste, the competent authorities
designated for issuing permits for disposal and recovery operations exist at national prefectural level.
The questionnaire established for this reporting does not require that the competent authorities for
hazardous waste be detailed.

According to the information, sent by the Greek Authorities to the Commission pursuant
to
Article 8(3) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste (2), one
installation holds a permit for the processing of 12 000 tonnes per annum (t/a) of waste under
Recovery Operation (3) R 13 and one installation holds a permit for Disposal Operation D 15 (20 t/a).
The Commission has no information on how many permits were issued for the collection and
transport of hazardous wastes.

2. Assessment of the information provided by the Greek Authorities in December 2002 for the year
2000, shows that approximately 230 000 tonnes are temporarily stored at the sites where they are
produced, with a view to their disposal or recovery. The Greek Authorities underline that constant
state control is applied to ensure that public health and the environment are fully protected.

3. The Commission holds no information on the final location for the disposal or recovery of hazardous
waste currently temporarily stored. Greek legislation on hazardous waste, i.e. Common Ministerial
Decision 19396/1546/1997, establishes a number of specific measures for the management of
hazardous waste.
it explicitly requires that establishments and undertakings which
dispose of, recover, collect or transport hazardous waste, do not mix different categories of hazardous
waste or mix hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste. Furthermore, the Greek Authorities have
confirmed that management conditions for preliminary storage at the place of production preclude
mixing of the waste with other waste (hazardous or non-hazardous).

In particular,

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4. As the Commission received only incomplete information about the measures taken by the Greek
Government to comply with the Court judgement of 13 June 2002 (4), it took the view that Greece
has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 228(1) of the EC Treaty and addressed a letter of formal
notice, in accordance with Article 228(2) of the EC Treaty. In that context, the Commission will
investigate any information which gives reason to assume that Greece does not apply Community
legislation properly.

(1) OJ C 70 E, 20.3.2004, p. 132.
(2) OJ L 377, 31.12.1991.
(3) Pursuant to Annex II of Directive 75/442/EEC.
(4)

Judgement of 13.6.2002, Commission/Greece, case C-33/01, ECJ Reports p. 5 447.

(2004/C 78 E/0513)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3218/03

by John Bowis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(31 October 2003)

Subject: Rare diseases: Evans syndrome

Is the Commission aware of the problems of children suffering from Evans syndrome and of the extreme
and alarming difficulties faced in financing even modestly budgeted medical research projects for
non-genetic rare diseases (including Evans syndrome) in Europe?

Is the Commission prepared to provide financial support to research projects related to the Evans
syndrome (including projects sponsored by the ‘Association Française du Syndrome d’Evans (AFSE)’ in
France and by ‘People in Search of a Cure for Evans Syndrome’ in the UK)?

Given that the EC Pharmaceutical Policy Regulation on Orphan Drugs requires a prior fundamental
understanding of physiopathological aspects of diseases (which is presently absent in the case of the Evans
syndrome) and that the Community’s action on rare diseases is not linked to criteria such as the mortality
rate or the impact of a disease on children (and is in practice too selective, excluding diseases which have
not been researched earlier), could the Commission envisage the creation of a ‘universal fund for rare
diseases’, such as the one that exists in other sectors, to help guarantee the rights of the weakest?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(10 December 2003)

Rare diseases research is covered under
the Priority 1 Programme ‘Life sciences, genomics and
biotechnology for health’ of the 6th Framework Programme. Competitive calls for projects, involving at
least three independent legal entities established in three different Member States or associated States, are
issued regularly within the context of the work programmes of this priority.

Although this Priority Programme is focused on genomics and biotechnology research, and even though
the Evans syndrome seems to have no genetic basis, the disease may benefit from research undertaken in
this Priority.

Two calls have already been published in 2003.

Although Evans syndrome has not been specifically mentioned in the work programmes of these two first
calls, researchers interested in Evans syndrome may have taken the opportunity to participate in consortia
applying for topics relevant to their research field, such as:

(cid:1) co-ordination of rare disease research in Europe, with various stakeholders from research, small and

medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and patient organisations;