WRITTEN QUESTION E-4017/03 by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Publicisation of the EU among the blind in the Community.
Date: 2004-01-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU publication, action programme, dissemination of EU information, facilities for people with disabilities, information society, physically disabled person

C 84 E/284

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

(2004/C 84 E/0330)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4017/03

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(9 January 2004)

Subject: Publicisation of the EU among the blind in the Community

Publicisation of the Community’s activities is vital in order to make its population aware that it is living in
a community and that all the activities of the EU institutions affect each and every citizen of the Union.

There is, however, a group (cid:1) one of the most sensitive groups among our citizens (cid:1) which should not be
excluded from this publicisation of the Community’s activities, namely the blind.

Can the Commission state what action it is taking to ensure that this group, those affected by blindness, is
made aware of the main lines of Community policy, both generally and on matters potentially affecting
that group itself? Can it state what specialist publications exist at EU level for that group?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2004)

The Commission publishes its documents on paper and in electronic form. Publications on paper usually
follow a standard model which means they can be read individually by an optical character recognition
(OCR) system. Nevertheless, the best way to give access to these documents is to make them available
directly on electronic files. They can usually be transmitted on request to users’ computers. The electronic
files can then be printed in Braille, enlarged by a screen magnifying glass or read orally with a screen-
reading device.

Publications on the web are coded in proprietary formats which, of course, are not easy to convert. But it
is also possible to obtain electronic files which facilitate access.

The Commission has financed research in this area to contribute to the development of systems and tools
giving blind and visually impaired people access to information. Research is geared not only to access to
text but also to graphics

However, it can be said that the current trend is to publish information on the Internet. For over ten years
the Commission has been financing several web accessibility projects, and the various
research
programmes have helped to satisfy the needs and expectations of the disabled by giving them access to
documents and information on Community policies. The results of a pilot project on accessibility by the
blind to the official texts of the treaties have been put on the web by the Publications Office (OOPEC).

Moreover, several projects financed by the Commission fall within the scope of the Web Accessibility
Initiative (WAI) (1), which lays down guidelines and recommendations designed to give everybody access to
the web. The WAI is part of the Consortium World Wide Web (W3C) (2), financed from several sources, in
particular in Europe, the United States and Japan.

In June 2000, the Feira European Council adopted the ‘eEurope 2002’ action plan to create an information
society which would put all aspects of European citizens’ lives on line. It aims, in particular, to facilitate
web access for the disabled and to apply the recommendations of the Web Accessibility Initiative.
the Commission adopted a communication (3) entitled ‘eEurope 2002:
On 25 September 2001,
Accessibility to public web sites and their content’ (4), for the purpose of facilitating access to web sites
for the elderly and the disabled.

With respect to the Europa server, the European Commission has decided to adopt level A (Priority 1)
conformity for new and updated websites. Although several Europa first-level sites meet the conditions
required for this elementary conformity level, the Commission is endeavouring to bring a large part of its
existing pages into conformity.

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Official Journal of the European Union

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The web sites and pages produced by the Commission mainly targeting the general public and the media
as well as the Community law access service, Eur-Lex, have already been adapted to WAI standards.

The level A conformity logo on certain Europa pages means that those pages, as well as part of their
secondary pages, have been set out with a view to accessibility. This policy applies to all new pages and to
all updated pages on Europa. It will be reviewed at a later state and adapted to all new versions of the
W3C guidelines relating to accessibility of the web content.

The Commission is conducting a survey of the institutions and the Member States as part of ‘eEurope’.
The results should be available early 2004.

Lastly, where information specifically concerns the target population, the Commission has taken special
measures to ensure that publications and documents are available in accessible formats, as was the case for
the introduction of the euro and for the format of the coins and notes.

(1) http://www.w3.org/wai/
(2) http://www.w3.org/
(3) COM(2001) 529 final.
(4) http://europa/eu.int/information_society/topics/citizens/accessibility/web/wai_2002/cec_com_web_wai_2001/

index_en.htm

(2004/C 84 E/0331)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4018/03

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(9 January 2004)

Subject: Standardised use of the European flag on aircraft of EU airlines

The circumstance that some airlines from EU Member States display the European flag on their aircraft
while others do not has given rise to the most diverse interpretations by airport authorities in third
countries. This, not surprisingly, generates considerable confusion over the symbolic dimension.

One might therefore think it logical that there should be Community legislation to standardise the use of
the European flag as a symbol, on aircraft that belong to the same (European) community. The consensus
among third-country airport authorities is that either the Community flag should be displayed by all
aircraft from EU Member States, or none of them should have the right to use or display it.

Can the Commission state its position on standardisation? Does it believe legislation should be proposed
on the matter, in order to ensure that the EU projects a unified corporate image in this respect?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(16 March 2004)

The European emblem dates back to 1955 and is the ‘property’ of the Council of Europe. In 1979, the
Council of Europe notified the emblem to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva.
As a result, the emblem obtained protection in accordance with Article 6ter of the Paris Convention on the
protection of industrial property.

Thus, any initiative to adopt Community legislation harmonising the use of the European emblem on
aircrafts belonging to aircraft companies located in the Union would require the consensus of the Council
of Europe.

With regard to the substance of the question, the Commission thinks that an initiative of the kind, as
suggested by the Honourable Member, would require an in-depth prior assessment, notably involving the
European air transport companies and competent national air transport authorities on the implications for
the organization of air traffic, taking into account the legal framework of the Chicago Convention on
international civil aviation.