Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

[**Avis juridique important**](../../../editorial/legal_notice.htm)

*|*

# 92001E0891

**WRITTEN QUESTION E-0891/01 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Subsidies for the Sensus police project.** 
  
*Official Journal 364 E , 20/12/2001 P. 0020 - 0020*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0891/01

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(27 March 2001)

Subject: Subsidies for the Sensus police project

In reply to Question P-0009/01(1), Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said that the Commission was aware that the AfA (Amt für Auslandsfragen), which was involved in both Aventinus and Sensus via its test centre for language technology, was a government body reporting to the office of the German Federal Chancellor. Mr Liikanen thereby implicitly acknowledges that the Commission was aware of the involvement of the German federal security service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst.

To avoid any misunderstanding about the involvement of the German federal security service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, with Aventinus and Sensus, I should like to know: does the Commission acknowledge, explicitly and unambiguously, that it was aware of the involvement of the German federal security service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst?

(1) OJ C 187 E, 3.7.2001, p. 154.

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(1 August 2001)

The Commission services were aware at the time of the signature of the Sensus contract, that the Amt für Auslandsfragen (AfA) was a test centre for language technology, a public body reporting to the German federal chancellery. They were not informed of any relationship between AfA and the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) until towards the end of the project. In any case, there was no legal impediment to the participation of AfA, or indeed the BND, in the Sensus project.

[Top](#document1)