WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1439/98 by José GARCÍA-MARGALLO Y MARFIL to the Commission. Euro 1999
C 50/36 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 22. 2. 1999 Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission (25 June 1998) 1. Apart from press claims the Commission possesses no evidence on any of these allegations. 2. The Commission nonetheless remains vigilant in defence of Community interests and continues to make stringent efforts to improve the security of its data networks, especially as regards e-mail communications. The Commission condemns any and all attempts to breach the confidentiality of information held or transmitted by the Community institutions. 3. and 4. The Honourable Member is referred to the answer above. (1999/C 50/052) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1439/98 by JosØ García-Margallo y Marfil (PPE) to the Commission (11 May 1998) Subject: Euro 1999 The current French government has announced its intention to reduce working time to 35 hours a week. In the Commissionís view, what impact would extending this measure to all Member States of the Union have on the competitiveness of European industry? Answer given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission (24 June 1998) The green paper Partnership for a new organisation of workí (1) examines the scope for improving competi- tiveness and employment through a better organisation of work at the work place. Changes in working time should be considered in this context. In the 1998 Employment Guidelines (2), the social partners are invited to negotiate, áat the appropriate levels, in particular at sectoral and enterprise levels, agreements to modernise the organisation of work, including flexible working arrangements, with the aim of making undertakings productive and competitive and achieving the required balance between flexibility and security. Such agreements may, for example, cover the expression of working time as an annual figure, the reduction of working hours, the reduction of overtime, the development of part-time, lifelong training and career breaksí. The question of working time is also addressed in the Commission communication on Growth and employment in the stability oriented framework of EMUí (3). Here an important distinction is made between compulsory and voluntary reductions in working time. Whereas the former raise a number of questions, the latter offer the possibility for increasing the labour content of growth. Therefore specific measures of working time reductions at the micro-economic level where negotiated by the social partners can play a positive role for employment provided that certain conditions are met. (1) COM(97) 128. (2) OJ C 30, 28. 1. 1998. (3) COM(98) 103