WRITTEN QUESTION E-0230/00 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission. Publication of answers to questions to the Commission.
28. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 374 E/39 Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (15 March 2000) Following the clarifications that Mrs Van Putten provided by telephone to the Commission, supplementary information to the answer given to her Written Question E-3743/98 was sent to her on 9 June 1999. In its letter, the Commission stated that it had contacted the French authorities concerning the deforesta- tion to which she referred. The French authorities had replied that the Saint-Prix national forest where the is located formed part of the stateís private property and was Route ForestiŁre du Port des Moinesí managed by the national forestry office according to a plan approved by the Ministry of Agriculture, which ensured its on-going management. More specifically, the stands located on each side of the forest road are mature softwoods (spruces) which are at the stage of natural regeneration. There is therefore neither deforestation nor reafforestation involving softwoods. In any case, this is one of the highest points in Burgundy (903 metres) with an annual rainfall of at least 1 000 to 1 200 mm, which excludes any risk of drought. (2000/C 374 E/045) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0230/00 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission (4 February 2000) Subject: Publication of answers to questions to the Commission Will the Commission detail the steps it currently takes to enable all MEPs and the public to read the answers it has provided to parliamentary questions tabled by all MEPs? In the interests of transparency, and in common with the practice of governments in many Member States, will the Commission arrange for answers to parliamentary questions to be published in the language originally used on the internet or intranet immediately after responses have been sent to the MEPs who tabled them? And if not, why not? Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission (18 April 2000) Written questions and answers are published by the Parliament in 11 languages in the Official journal of the European Communities in line with Parliamentís rules of procedure. As from OJ C 27 this year the Official journal is published electronically, see e. g. http://europa. eu. int/eur-lex. The Parliament also makes written questions and answers of the last two legislatures available on http:// www. europarl. eu. int/questions/fr/default. htm which offers various search possibilities. In addition the written questions and answers are published in Celex which offers advanced search features. The management board of the Publications office, of which all institutions are members, recently requested that Celex, EUDOR and EUR-Lex be integrated into a coherent on-line service for accessing all the Community official documents. Finally the Commission understands that the Parliament makes available to Honourable Members the answers to written questions on an internal Parliament website immediately after receiving them from the Commission in one or two languages