WRITTEN QUESTION E-0573/00 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Council. Council staff.
C 330 E/188 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 21. 11. 2000 (2000/C 330 E/215) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0573/00 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Council (2 March 2000) Subject: Council staff Will the Council please indicate the number of its staff in post, including all services such as interpretation and translation, in each of the last five years? Reply (2 May 2000) The Honourable Member will find attached a table showing the number of staff in post in the Council General Secretariat over the last five years. Number of staff in post in the council general secretariat (Officials and temporary staff 1995-1999) Category/Service 1995 1996 A L/A (1) B C D 246 509 190 1 205 127 Total 2 277 261 554 192 1 246 128 2 381 Year 1997 280 588 188 1 246 131 2 433 1998 1999 283 581 196 1 253 134 2 447 290 616 202 1 260 132 2 500 (1) There are no interpreters employed as permanent officials in the Council General Secretariat. These tasks are carried out by JICS (Commission). (2000/C 330 E/216) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0577/00 by Niall Andrews (UEN) to the Commission (24 February 2000) Subject: Spring and MCI WorldCom merger In 1998, the Commission reviewed the proposed merger between MCI and WorldCom and estimated that this the combined company would control 50 % or more of concentration would have an adverse anti-competitive impact on European carriers, ISPs and Internet users. As a result, the Commission forced the divestiture of the MCI Internet backbone business. the US backbone. It concluded that Is the Commission now aware of the proposed merger between Sprint and MCI WorldCom and that 1. it would result in the largest market capitalisation in the world and domination of the global Internet and would have a consequent anti-competitive impact throughout Europe? Is it further aware that such a merger between the number one and number two US backbone 2. providers would lead to an 80 % US market share with significant European and transatlantic capacity? 3. European IP-networks are configured in such a way that intra-European traffic is frequently routed via the United States. MCI WorldCom, with its major Internet switching facility in Washington DC handles 85 % of all intra-European Internet traffic. Sprint owns the only other switching facility on the east coast