WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3248/97 by Honor FUNK to the Commission. WTO ruling on the import ban on meat treated with hormones
C 134/124 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 30. 4. 98 (98/C 134/162) WRITTEN QUESTION P-3247/97 by Yves Verwaerde (PPE) to the Commission (9 October 1997) Subject: Research appropriations for the development of digital television Will the Commission state the amount of Community appropriations allocated for research into the development of digital television? Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission (17 November 1997) The development of European technological specifications for digital television was supported by the RACE programme within the 3rd research and development framework programme which laid the basis for moving picture expert group (MPEG) and digital video broadcasting (DVB) › compatible services that have already been launched over satellites and cable networks. Today, the ACTS and Esprit programmes support digital production and authoring tools, the validation of terrestrial and cellular television, the introduction of interactive television, electronic cinema and the development of universal set-top-boxes. The total Commission contribution for the ACTS programme was 52 MECU including: › Digital production and switching of compressed bitstreams: 6. 1 MECU › Validation of terrestrial TV: 6. 6 MECU › Cellular interactive TV over microwave networks: 11 MECU › Interactive TV (for cable, satellite and terrestrial): 9. 8 MECU › Multimedia over DAB and GSM networks: 4. 7 MECU › Electronic cinema: 3. 3 MECU › Set-top box for terrestrial TV: 2. 1 MECU › Programme guide and user interfaces: 3. 5 MECU › Quality of service: 4. 2 MECU › Socio-economic aspects: 0. 5 MECU. The total Commission contribution for the ESPRIT programme was 7. 8 MECU including: › Digital production and authoring systems: 2. 8 MECU › Technologies and services for cable networks: 1. 7 MECU › Home-bus for digital TV: 1. 3 MECU › Set-top box: 2 MECU. (98/C 134/163) WRITTEN QUESTION P-3248/97 by Honor Funk (PPE) to the Commission (9 October 1997) Subject: WTO ruling on the import ban on meat treated with hormones 1. What arguments did the EU use to appeal against the WTO ruling? 2. What is the task of the WTO Appellate Body (7 members)? Can only legal aspects of the Panelís report be the subject of appeals?