WRITTEN QUESTION E-0139/04 by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Financial support for undersea optic-fibre cable link for the islands of Flores and Corvo (Azores).
Date: 2004-01-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Azores, EU financing, peripheral region, project evaluation, telecommunications equipment, transmission network

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/167

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(11 March 2004)

In the framework of its negotiations with the United States (US) authorities on the transfer of
1.
Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, the Commission has agreed that PNR data from the EU may be used
in testing CAPPS II, but only subject to very strict and limitative conditions. In addition to the conditions
mentioned by the Honourable Member, all sensitive data categories must have been deleted before any
testing can take place. The letter from the Member of the Commission responsible for the Internal Market
to US Homeland Security Department Secretary Ridge of 18 December 2003 on this subject, which is
available on the Commission’s website (1), makes it clear that the Commission is in principle prepared to
co-operate with the Department of Homeland Security on CAPPS II, but only in so far as the CAPPS II
system has obtained the necessary US domestic clearances first. No such testing using passenger data is in
any case taking place now, as the US authorities have confirmed to us. The Commission believes that the
political commitments it has received that the agreed conditions will be met can be relied on.

2.
The CAPPS II programme will involve the computerised pre-screening of passengers in advance of
flights with the aim of concentrating examinations at the point of embarkation on those passengers who
may present a rear risk. The US Department of Homeland Security considers this to be an important part
of their efforts to ensure the safety of civil aviation and avoid any repetitions of the events of 9/11. The
Commission would like to observe that it is premature to say that this programme is ‘at odds with
European principles and rules on privacy protection’, first because CAPPS II is still under development in
the US, and second because the Commission would start examining these questions only once the system
has received all U.S. domestic clearances. Descriptions of CAPPS II published by the United States
authorities, notably on 15 January 2003 and 31 July 2003, did indeed raise a number of specific concerns
and any future possible use of data originating in the EU by this system would clearly have to be
conditioned on adequate safeguards. Furthermore,
the US General
Accounting Office (GAO) has concluded in its February 2004 investigation requested by the US Congress
that there were still a number of data protection concerns regarding CAPPS II.

the Commission is aware that

3.
The Commission has no comment to make on the article in The Washington Post, other than to say
that various barriers remain to be cleared before United States domestic carriers’ passenger data and
subsequently EU passenger data can be used for testing CAPPS II.

As regards testing, the Commission sees an interest in the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA)
testing of CAPPS II with non-United States data as well as United States data, when one of the EU’s main
concerns is to ensure that the system should work fairly and not in a way which discriminates against non-
American citizens.

(1) http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/privacy/docs/adequacy/pnr/2003-12-18-letter-bolkestein_en.pdf

(2004/C 84 E/0205)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0139/04

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(26 January 2004)

Subject: Financial support for undersea optic-fibre cable link for the islands of Flores and Corvo (Azores)

An undersea optic-fibre cable link, co-funded by the Community, now connects all parts of Portugal except
for the islands of Flores and Corvo in the Azores Autonomous Region. This state of affairs constitutes
serious discrimination against the residents of those islands in one of the Community’s most remote
regions.

Can the Commission provide information on possible Community support, especially financial,
constructing an undersea optic-fibre cable link for the islands of Flores and Corvo?

for

C 84 E/168

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(23 February 2004)

The fibre-optic undersea cable linking the Azores to the mainland and the fibre-optic undersea cable
between the islands (except Flores and Corvo) were part-financed by the Regis II Community Initiative.
The former cost approximately EUR 16,6 million, the latter approximately EUR 12,5 million. These
projects received part-financing of EUR 12,5 million and EUR 9,35 million respectively from the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF). REGIS II was a Community Initiative during the 1994-1999
programming period.

Submitting applications and allocating finance came under the responsibility of the regional authorities,
whose aim was to develop as many projects as possible as efficiently as possible. Flores and Corvo have a
combined population of 4 400 and are 140 nautical miles (about 200 kilometres) from Faial, the nearest
other island, and some 500 kilometres from the most populated island (Saint Miguel). Due to the cost of
providing Flores and Corvo with a fibre-optic link,
it was decided to use alternative technical means
(wireless data link and satellite).

This type of project could be eligible for support under the POSI operational programme, but the choice of
projects for approval also has to consider their cost-effectiveness in relation to existing and foreseeable
traffic and take into account the results of the alternative solutions available. Approval of the projects
submitted rests with the programme manager and the managing unit (at national level) taking into account
inter alia the priorities set, the selection criteria laid down and the project’s economic viability so as to
maximise the operational programme’s effectiveness while complying with the rules in force, including
those on competition.

The Commission is currently also examining the question of remotest regions’ links with the rest of the
Union and ways of reducing their inaccessibility, with a view to responding to the memorandum which
Portugal, France and Spain sent to the Commission in June 2003.

(2004/C 84 E/0206)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0151/04

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Shortage of intensive care units in Greece

(27 January 2004)

There is a significant shortage of intensive care units in Greece. Under the Second Community Support
Framework (CSF), measure 1.1 of the health section of the Health and Welfare Programme provides
specific appropriations for the modernisation of intensive care units and the creation of new units.

1.
How many intensive care units were planned when the Health and Welfare Programme was
submitted under the Second CSF? How many were created and how many of those are now operational?

2.

3.

How many units planned under the Second CSF were not completed?

How many completed units are not operational and why?

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(5 March 2004)

The Commission can inform the honourable Member that no measure of
the Health and Welfare
Programme of the Second Community Support Framework (CSF) provided specific appropriations for the
modernisation of intensive care units and the creation of new units.