WRITTEN QUESTION E-3552/03 by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. EU funding for research programmes in Ukraine.
Date: 2003-12-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, Ukraine, bio-ethics, embryo and foetus, infant mortality, research programme, scientific cooperation, stem cell

C 78 E/584

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

current enlargement, Portugal is suffering a severe economic backlash from its peripheral location. Action
in the transport infrastructure sector is therefore of particular importance.

On the other hand, there is fortunately (cid:1) since the Gothenburg 1999 and Lisbon 2000 Summits (cid:1) the
reassuring consideration that the goals of economic and material development in the European Union
should only be pursued in obedience to sustainability criteria, i.e. the so-called environmental dimension.
For example, an ‘eco-conditionality’ criterion was introduced for the carrying out of various activities
which fell within the scope of EU powers.

In other words, transport infrastructure and the environment are two areas of prime importance for the
longed-for Portuguese convergence and the much desired social cohesion of the EU and, for that very
reason, come under the Cohesion Fund.

The Commission:

1. Can it tell me where exactly we are right now with the application of the Cohesion Fund in Portugal,

both in procedural and quantitative terms?

2. Are public reports that Portugal is in danger of losing these funds justified?

3. How many cases have been approved, to date, relative to the Commission’s expectations?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(9 January 2004)

The indicative Cohesion Fund allocation to Portugal for 2003 is EUR 478 million. To this must be added
EUR 169 million not committed by Portugal
in 2002. Thus for 2003 an indicative amount of
EUR 647 million was available for part-financing of transport and environment projects.

Of this amount the Commission committed EUR 645 million in December 2003, EUR 139 million for
12 projects accepted in previous years and EUR 506 million for 23 new projects.

We consider therefore that Portugal’s take-up of Cohesion Fund commitment appropriations is satisfactory
given that the leeway from 2002 has been made up.

(2004/C 78 E/0618)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3552/03

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 December 2003)

Subject: EU funding for research programmes in Ukraine

According to media reports, 700 children disappeared in the region of the Ukrainian city of Kharkov
between 1996 and 2003, and the whereabouts of over 300 of them is apparently still unknown. In the
‘Mona Lisa’ programme shown on 12 October 2003 on the German television channel ZDF, serious
accusations were levelled at a hospital in Kharkov, where there have been repeated instances of newborn
babies being pronounced dead and where there is a high incidence of premature births resulting in death.
A mass grave was found with fetuses and babies from which the organs had been removed.

Can the Commission therefore answer the following questions:

1.

2.

Is EU aid used to fund research programmes on embryonic or adult stem cells in Ukraine?

If so, which institutes or organisations receive the funding?

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/585

3. Does the Commission believe that other forms of EU aid may be used to finance similar research

activities which could involve the use of foetuses or new born babies?

4.

Is the Commission aware of a possible connection between the strikingly large number of missing or
stillborn babies and research projects on human cells in Ukraine?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(22 January 2004)

There is no Union-funded research project

1. and 2.
that concerns embryonic or adult stem cells
research and that involves a Ukrainian participant neither in the Fifth Framework Programme (1998-2002)
nor in the present stage of implementation of the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006).

3.
The Commission does not believe that Union aid, and Technical assistance to the Commonwealth of
Independent States (TACIS) funding in particular, are used to finance research activities involving the use
of foetuses or new born babies.

4.
The Commission does not have any information on statistics for missing or stillborn babies in
Ukraine and has no reason to believe that there is a connection between infant mortality rates and human
cell research in Ukraine.

(2004/C 78 E/0619)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3553/03

by Claude Moraes (PSE) to the Commission

(1 December 2003)

Subject: Missing Cypriots

A group of my constituents, the Organisation of Relatives of Missing Cypriots (UK), wish to know what
the situation is in resolving the case of the missing persons in Cyprus.

Does the Commission believe the Government of Turkey could exert more pressure on the Turkish Cypriot
leadership to uphold its duties and responsibilities to human rights? If so, could the Commission please
state whether this issue will form part of Turkey’s accession negotiations?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(29 January 2004)

Mr Clerides and Mr Denktash met in June and July 2002 to exchange proposals on the issue of missing
persons. The basis for this exchange was their agreement of 31 July 1997. The Greek Cypriot side
proceeded with its programme of exhumations and identifications in areas under its control. Investigations
are carried out by the United States (US) funded bi-communal Institute for Neurology and Genetics. The
Turkish Cypriot side has not yet designated scientists who would work with the Institute.

In its set of measures vis-à-vis the Turkish Cypriots of 30 April 2003 the Government of the Republic
announced several measures regarding relatives of missing and killed Turkish Cypriots. The measures
provide ‘inter alia’
for access to information, meetings between relatives of missing persons and
Government officials, exploratory excavations of burial places, and arrangements for the establishment of
a DNA Bank. A list of 500 Turkish Cypriots whose cases have been submitted to the Committee of
Missing Persons (CMP) was published by the Government of the Republic in Turkish Cypriot newspapers
on 14 June 2003. The Commission has also learned that information concerning the fate of 201 missing
Turkish Cypriots was officially conveyed to the International Committee of the Red Cross by Government
authorities.