WRITTEN QUESTION No. 4226/97 by Cristiana MUSCARDINI , Gianfranco FINI , Amedeo AMADEO , Roberta ANGELILLI , Spalato BELLERE' , Marco CELLAI , Gastone PARIGI , Sebastiano MUSUMECI , Salvatore TATARELLA , Antonio TRIZZA to the Council. Return of the assets of Holocaust victims
17. 7. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 223/75 Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission (12 March 1998) The Commission is aware of the problems raised by the Honourable Member, and shares her concern. It has 1. been working actively on these issues for over two years and has recently adopted a proposal for an action plan on promoting safe use of the Internet (1) and a proposal for a Council recommendation for the protection of minors and human dignity in audiovisual and information services (2). The action plan will provide a basis for Community co-funding of a European network of hotlines for 2. reporting illegal content such as child pornography, for European filtering and rating systems and for actions to promote awareness. The action plan will also provide support for action under the Council recommendation for European co-ordination of actions at national level in the field of self-regulation. International co-operation will also be reinforced under these two measures. 3. The Commission has further been actively engaged in the discussions of the Council under the third pillar, and in discussions of the Eight (including Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom) to develop legal and technical mechanisms that allow for timely international law enforcement response to computer-related crimes. The Commission is involved in the implementation of the action plan to combat organised crime endorsed by the European Council in Amsterdam and which includes a recommendation to combat the criminal use of new technologies. These actions will contribute substantially to discouraging the circulation of child pornography on the 4. Internet. (1) OJ C 48, 13. 2. 1998. (2) COM(97) 570 final. (98/C 223/93) WRITTEN QUESTION E-4226/97 by Cristiana Muscardini (NI), Gianfranco Fini (NI), Amedeo Amadeo (NI), Roberta Angelilli (NI), Spalato Bellere· (NI), Marco Cellai (NI), Gastone Parigi (NI), Sebastiano Musumeci (NI), Salvatore Tatarella (NI) and Antonio Trizza (NI) to the Council Subject: Return of the assets of Holocaust victims (22 January 1998) The press throughout Europe has quite rightly been publishing frequent and sympathetic reports about the Holocaust and the survivors of this enormous tragedy. Fifty years after the event the question of returning the assets stolen from the victims or kept in credit institutions and banks in various countries has not been settled, nor has the fate of the gold stolen by the Nazis been ascertained. In view of the legitimate nature of the demands made by the survivors and victimsí lawful heirs, can the Council say whether it intends to exert all possible pressure on the governments concerned, whether they belong to the European Union or not, to persuade them to put an end to this blatant injustice? Answer (27 April 1998) As the Community has no competence in this area, the Council is not in a position to exert pressure on the governments concerned on this issue. In many countries, including Member States of the European Union, investigations by committees and other independent bodies are now being carried out in order to shed light on questions of what happened to property which belonged to holocaust victims as well as what happened to gold looted by the Nazis in the central banks of occupied countries. International conferences on these questions have been held and further conferences are planned