WRITTEN QUESTION P-3538/03 by Edward McMillan-Scott (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Pensions.
Date: 2003-11-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, elderly person, guaranteed income, pension scheme, social assistance, social policy, subsistence level income

C 70 E/266

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

20.3.2004

The course students (who had to go through a selection procedure) have not received the grant awarded to
them (EUR 10 389,14 per student), since the person in charge of the course (cid:1) a Mr Palladino (cid:1) has been
deemed untrustworthy by the Ministry for State Education, Universities and Scientific Research on account
of his previous record. On 30 April 2003 (20 days before the course was due to end) the Ministry decided
that co-financing would be suspended and that the training project would be abandoned.

On the basis of the above information, does the Commission not think that, irrespective of any judgment
regarding Mr Palladino, the 19 pre-selected women should not be denied their grants or have their course
certificates withheld?

Does the Commission not agree that, in accordance with the rules, some kind of protection should be
offered to the 19 unemployed course students who, having been duly selected, wished to take advantage of
the opportunity afforded to them under the Structural Funds?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(16 December 2003)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.

(2004/C 70 E/289)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3537/03

by Philip Bushill-Matthews (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 November 2003)

Subject: Hotel fire safety

Given that a report prepared for the Commission in October 2000 analysing the impact of the 1986
Recommendations on fire safety in hotels concluded that the Recommendations had not been effective in
providing a uniform level of fire safety, and that in a later report in June 2001 the Commission recognised
that more needed to be done to improve fire safety in hotels throughout the EU, when does the
Commission intend to introduce a directive on hotel fire safety, to ensure a consistent and adequate level
of protection for all Europe’s citizens who are guests or who work in hotels?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(12 December 2003)

The Commission would refer
Mrs Jackson (1)

(1) OJ C 65 E, 13.3.2004, p. 271.

the Honourable Member

to its answer

to written E-3172/03 by

(2004/C 70 E/290)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3538/03

by Edward McMillan-Scott (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 November 2003)

Subject: Pensions

Apart from Belgium, which other Member States operate a discretionary pension scheme based on means
testing?

20.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 70 E/267

Answer given by Mme Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(15 December 2003)

All current 15 Member States have some forms of minimum income provision for older people. These may
take the form of a flat-rate pension based on residency (Netherlands, Denmark), a minimum contributory
pension (subject to a minimum number of contribution years) or a fully means-tested social assistance type
benefit. Various provisions may co-exist within a single Member State.

The joint report of the Council and the Commission on adequate and sustainable pensions adopted in
March 2003 (1) summarises in table 1 information obtained from the Member States’ authorities on such
minimum income guarantees for older people. The table indicates for each Member State whether the
provision of such guaranteed income is conditional on a means test or not. More information can be
obtained from the Missoc report 2001 ‘Social protection in the EU Member States and the EEA’, European
Commission (2).

(1) Available on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-prot/pensions/index_en.htm
(2) Available on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/missoc/index_en.html

(2004/C 70 E/291)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3931/03

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(16 December 2003)

Subject: Rehabilitation of areas devastated by the summer 2003 forest fires in Portugal

The summer 2003 forest fires in Portugal devastated 410 000 hectares, i.e. 5 % of Portugal’s landmass and
12 % of its woodlands, destroying numerous Natura 2000 Network areas, various cork oak, holm oak and
oak forests, causing numerous deaths, destroying homes, killing animals and destroying crops in some of
the country’s most fragile and deprived rural regions.

Support provided under the aegis of the Solidarity Fund, although extremely useful, is nowhere like equal
to the enormous task of rehabilitating incalculably valuable natural heritage on this scale, and a rural
economy which is under threat of total disappearance.

At the Budgetary Committee meeting which discussed the Solidarity Fund contribution to Portugal, it was
claimed that a total of EUR 180 million was going to be reprogrammed from Portuguese Structural Funds
to cope with the challenge.

Could the Commission explain:

1. Why amounts programmed for the 2000-2003 Structural Funds, and not yet taken up, cannot be

reprogrammed to this end?

2. Whether the Portuguese authorities have already submitted specific proposals for reprogramming the
EUR 180 million, and whether this amount is earmarked for rehabilitating the natural heritage and the
rural economy of the areas devastated?

3. What other means it thinks could be used to support this rehabilitation which, while of direct concern

to Portugal, is of no less concern to Europe?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(14 January 2004)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.