WRITTEN QUESTION E-3328/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Wilful neglect, to the point of destruction, of the former prison camp Stammlager X B Sandbostel, an important memorial to the shared history of Europe.
Date: 2003-11-12
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, Lower Saxony, Second World War, cultural policy, heritage protection, historic site, prisoner of war

C 78 E/522

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

(cid:1) A residence allowance is paid on the same basis as expatriate officials and is equal to 15 % of the basic

salary for non-Belgian Commissioners.

(cid:1) There is a monthly representation allowance, currently EUR 607,71 for Commissioners, EUR 911,38
reasons of
for Vice-Presidents, and EUR 1 418,07 for the President. Expenditure incurred for
representation is reimbursed after presentation of the relevant invoice and reason, and is subject to
the stipulated maximum in any month. Reimbursement is limited annually to EUR 11 489 for most
Members of
relations
responsibility, the annual ceiling is EUR 17 234 and for the President it is EUR 28 723.

the Vice-Presidents and Members with external

the Commission. For

(cid:1) When first taking up duty, a Member of the Commission (unless he or she is a Belgian citizen) is
entitled to an allowance to cover his or her installation expenses, equivalent to two months’ basic
gross salary (i.e. currently EUR 34 682 for a Commissioner), reimbursement for travel expenses for
himself or herself and dependent family, and reimbursement of the cost of moving personal effects
(insurance included).

(cid:1) Similar arrangements exist under the relevant legal provisions for Presidents and Members of the

Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors.

(2004/C 78 E/0543)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3328/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(12 November 2003)

Subject: Wilful neglect,

to the point of destruction, of
Sandbostel’, an important memorial to the shared history of Europe

the former prison camp ‘Stammlager X B

Is the Commission aware that during the Second World War more than a million people from 46
1.
countries (including the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Greece, Serbia, Poland, Italy, Russia, Ukraine
and the Netherlands) were at one time or another detained as prisoners of war by the Hitler regime in the
camp ‘Stammlager X B Sandbostel’ near Bremervörde between the Rivers Weser and Elbe in the German
Land of Lower Saxony and that 50 000 of them died there during their imprisonment on account of
hunger, disease or mistreatment?

2.
Is the Commission also aware that in the late 1940s the same camp was used to imprison camp
guards and SS personnel and that from the 1950s it housed refugees from the GDR, but that since 1974 it
has formed part of Immenhain business park and has passed into private ownership without any form of
protection by the Land, Landkreis or commune?

Is the Commission aware that over a period of many years all memory of the camp has been
3.
systematically destroyed by neglecting it, so that the buildings are falling down, by making it impossible
for survivors or any other visitors to view the camp, by banning TV cameras from the site, by shouting at
visitors that
the past, and by opposing the ‘Dokumentations- und Gedenkstätte
Sandbostel’ association, which was set up in 1992 and seeks to preserve the camp as a memorial?

they should forget

4.
In view of the common history of the peoples of Europe and their shared suffering under violence
and dictatorship, will the Commission, even irrespective of its formal powers and responsibilities, take
steps to maximise the scope for preserving this former prison and concentration camp as a memorial and
making it accessible as such, and will it, on this basis, contact the authorities responsible for land-use
planning, education and monuments in Sandbostel?

Source: TV Nederland 1, Netwerk, 19 October 2003.

27.3.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/523

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(12 December 2003)

In 1993 the Parliament resolution on European and international protection for Nazi concentration camps
as historical monuments (1) called ‘on the Member States, the Council and the Commission to give financial
and other support to all measures designed to preserve the special significance of the Nazi concentration
camps and to place them under European and international protection’.

The 1995 budget accordingly made provision for grants for ‘the preservation of the main sites and
archives associated with the deportations, symbolised by the memorials which have been raised on the
sites of the former camps’. This provision has been renewed every year since, and is line 15.04.01.02 in
the preliminary draft budget for 2004.

In May 2003 the Commission proposed on the basis of Article 151 of the EC Treaty a new legal basis for
the grant scheme (2) as part of a proposal for a Parliament and Council Decision establishing a Community
action programme to promote bodies active at European level in the field of culture.

Projects are selected for these grants on the basis of calls for proposals. No proposal has hitherto been
received for a project in connection with the camp or from the organisation to which the Honourable
Member refers. The call for 2004 proposals will be published in the Official Journal and on the internet.

As regards the request to contact the responsible authorities, the Commission has no competence to do
this as, by virtue of the principle of subsidiarity, the matters cited fall within the exclusive responsibility of
the Member State.

(1) OJ C 72, 15.3.1993.
(2) COM(2003) 275 final.

(2004/C 78 E/0544)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3329/03

by Antonio Tajani (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 November 2003)

Subject: Eurobarometer poll according to which Israel is the greatest threat to world peace

According to the Eurobarometer poll commissioned by the Commission, EU citizens consider Israel to be
the country that presents the greatest threat to world peace.

Does the Commission know what the criteria were for the wording of the questions?

Is the Commission aware of the fact that in the answers offered to those questioned two democratic
countries, the United States and Israel, were put on the same level as dictatorships and theocratic regimes
that deny freedom?

What steps will the Commission and its President Romano Prodi take to prevent the European institutions
from legitimising thoughtless initiatives which may aggravate tension in Europe and the Middle East?

What steps will the Commission take to prevent leaks of information on such sensitive subjects, as in the
case of the findings of the Eurobarometer poll published in ‘EL País’?

Does the Commission not consider that Europe, mindful of the tragedy of the Holocaust, should take on
greater responsibility for the quest for peace in the Middle East?