WRITTEN QUESTION E-3945/03 by Marco Pannella (NI), Maurizio Turco (NI),Marco Cappato (NI), Gianfranco Dell'Alba (NI),Benedetto Della Vedova (NI)and Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission. Use of EU funds for terrorist organisations and checks on funding for the PNA.
Date: 2003-12-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, European Anti-fraud Office, Palestine, fraud against the EU, terms for aid, terrorism, use of aid

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/271

(2004/C 84 E/0318)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3944/03

by Dominique Souchet (NI) to the Commission

(22 December 2003)

Subject: Fish-stock recovery plans

In connection with the recovery plans for fisheries exploiting stocks which are outside ‘safe biological
limits’ (see Article 5 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 (1)), would the Commission say which legal
basis should be used for establishing the status of a fishing company whose catch includes a set of related
species of which several are subject to recovery plans, such as cod, hake, sole and plaice?

Would the Commission state whether the vessels concerned should be subject to one or more stock-
recovery plans, and on what legal basis/bases?

Should it be established unequivocally that a vessel may not be covered by more than one plan, would the
Commission indicate the criteria to be used for assigning a given vessel to a given plan?

(1) OJ L 358, 31.12.2002, p. 59.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(9 February 2004)

There is no definition of, and hence no legal basis to establish, the status of a fishing company in relation
to the recovery plans.

Recovery plans fix harvest rules that determine the levels of total allowable catches (TACs) for the duration
of the recovery plans. The TACs resulting from the application of the harvest rules will be set out each
year in the TAC and quota Regulation. The TACs for stocks caught in association with the recovery stocks
will also be set out in the TAC and quota Regulation, and will take into account the extent of the
association with the recovery stocks. Any fishing company catching recovery stocks or associated stocks
will therefore be subject to catch restrictions on the same legal basis as any other fishing company.

The recovery plans may include other provisions, such as the limitation of effort or enhanced control
measures. If a company fishes a stock that is subject to a recovery plan and other stocks that are subject to
other recovery plans, the company must comply with the provisions of all the recovery plans concerned.
The legal basis by which the company is bound by the provisions of the recovery plans is Council
Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of
fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy, as well as the provisions of the recovery plan itself,
which has the form of a regulation, and is thus according to Article 249 of the EC Treaty ‘Binding in its
entirety and directly applicable in all Member States’.

(2004/C 84 E/0319)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3945/03

by Marco Pannella (NI), Maurizio Turco (NI),
Marco Cappato (NI), Gianfranco Dell’Alba (NI),
Benedetto Della Vedova (NI)
and Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(22 December 2003)

Subject: Use of EU funds for terrorist organisations and checks on funding for the PNA

According to reports published in the German weekly ‘Stern’ and the UK daily ‘The Independent’, OLAF
and the Belgian police have opened investigations into alleged transfers of EU funds to a militant

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Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Palestinian group which is directly responsible for suicide attacks that have claimed victims among the
Israeli civilian population. These investigations arise from the allegation that funds intended for the PNA
were diverted to the ‘Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade’, through affiliated organisations in Germany and Belgium.
In Germany, the investigations began in Aachen but appear also to concern a cell in Verviers (Belgium).
It is claimed that these groups asked for EU funding for an immigration-related project, but that the funds
were subsequently transferred to Al-Aqsa, a group which is on the Union’s list of banned organisations.
These allegations represent only a part of the charges now being investigated by the Belgian authorities.

The Commission appears to have decided to earmark the annual sum of EUR 80 million to the PAN to
help it pay its debts to small businesses and fund social services, plus a further EUR 10 million in support
of the peace process.

Can the Commission state:

(cid:1) whether it

is aware of or is in a position to refute the press reports concerning the OLAF
investigations, and whether these are the same investigations as those being conducted by the German
and Belgian authorities;

(cid:1) whether it is aware of those actions or is in contact with the German and Belgian authorities with a

view to obtaining information on the course of other relevant investigations;

(cid:1) what checks are being made to ascertain whether funding to the PNA has been diverted to Palestinian

terrorist groups;

(cid:1) on what grounds the annual sums earmarked for the PNA have been tied to the payment of its debts
with small businesses, and whether specific checks have been made as to where and how the sums
transferred thus far from the EU to the PNA have been utilised?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(5 March 2004)

The Commission would inform the Honourable Members that according to the information provided by
the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), OLAF has opened a number of investigations designed to check
suspicions of possible misappropriation of Community funds paid in support of the operating budget of
the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and to finance humanitarian and development projects presented
by Palestinian associations or organisations. The relevant investigations are being conducted intensively
and without interruption.

The findings of
the above investigations into non-governmental associations or organisations have
prompted OLAF to report certain facts, not involving the funding of terrorist organisations, to the
competent judicial authorities. In this connection OLAF is collaborating closely with the Member States’
judicial authorities and actively assisting them.

On the basis of
there is no link between the
abovementioned investigations nor any evidence that funds paid by the Commission have been used to
finance terrorist organisations banned by the Union.

the information currently in OLAF’s possession,

The PNA has to contend with a chronic financing deficit and has had to defer payment of bills for social
security and from private firms, which has put these firms in an even more difficult situation and helped to
increase unemployment appreciably. The Union’s EUR 80 million allocation is therefore being used to
repay the government’s arrears on what is due to the private sector and social security payments. At the
same time this allocation is subject to the application of essential reforms to the PNA by means of
conditions attached to disbursements.

The Commission has set up a technical assistance team under the responsibility of DG AIDCO which
checks and approves one by one all the arrears invoices before the amount involved is released. To date a
total of some EUR 6,0 million out of the EUR 80 million scheduled in 2003 has been released. The checks
performed by the technical assistance team are backed by further verification by an auditor seconded from
a European national audit board working under an ad hoc contract.