WRITTEN QUESTION No. 424/98 by Graham WATSON to the Commission. The Millenium Bug
C 310/62 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 9. 10. 98 Answer given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission (27 April 1998) The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its findings as soon as possible. (98/C 310/80) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0424/98 by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission (24 February 1998) Subject: The Millenium Bug What studies has the Commission made of the impact of the millenium bug on preparations for Economic and Monetary Union, both by the EU institutions and Member States? Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (8 May 1998) The Commission has adopted a communication on the year 2000 computer problem (1), in which the relationships between the millennium bug and the preparations for the changeover to the single European currency are identified. In addition, the Commission has followed and, in some cases, partially supported a number of surveys aimed at monitoring the state of readiness of business in various Member States and sectors on both issues. In parallel, the Commission has organised meetings with different parties to discuss more closely the technical preparations as well as ways in which experiences and good practices could be shared between Member States and sectors. Within the Commission itself, the impact on internal systems of both the year 2000 and the changeover to the Euro is handled by the Informatics directorate for the central aspects and by each Directorate general for their information systems. An inter-service task force has been established by the Commission to support analysis and solutions to identified problems, and work is in progress. Given the importance of the issue, the task force will be steered by a working group chaired at the highest level in the Commission. Both projects are following the phased approach, applied widely in the private and public sectors including risk management measures. As regards co-operation at an inter-institutional level, a contact group between the informatics services of the different institutions was initiated at the end of 1997. This group follows the same approach as that followed within the Commission itself and the timing of the different steps is planned to enable an adequate resolution of these problems for all institutions. The situation is regularly reviewed within the inter-institutional informatics committee and appropriate measures will be taken, if and when necessary, to cope with specific problems. Furthermore, the Commission maintains a world wide web site on the year 2000 computer problem and the information technology impact of the Euro (http://www. ispo. cec. be/y2keuro). This site provides access to information about activities in different economic sectors and Member States, points to sources of advice on specific aspects of the problem, and links to other sites as well as to all documents and reports produced by the Commission on the subject. (1) COM(1998) 102