WRITTEN QUESTION E-2221/99 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Promotions in the Commission and in the Member States.
C 219 E/126 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 1. 8. 2000 In the interests of transparency, will the Council provide Parliament with summary reports of these 3. meetings and with any documents on which discussions have been based? 4. With regard to the proposed directive on the taxation on savings income (áwithholding taxí), press reports have recently indicated that Commissioner Bolkestein appears to be softening his approach be permitting exemptions for eurobond trading from the withholding tax. What is the prospect of such an exemption being agreed? What are the most likely terms of such an exemption? 5. Will the Final Report of the Working Group on the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation be completed on time? Will this report be made public? What measures, and in which Member States, are included in the report? Reply (14 February 2000) One of the main priorities of the Presidency in the last months was to bring to a conclusion the three elements of the so-called Tax package before the Helsinki European Council. With that aim, intensive discussions concerning both technical questions and basic features have taken place within the Council itself and its competent bodies (at technical and high level). The Council will continue to inform Parliament in the usual way on these developments. With regard to the proposal for a Directive on the taxation of savings, it emerged from the discussions held so far, that the views of Member States still not have converged on some of the key issues. The Code of Conduct Group on business taxation brought its discussions on the assessment of potentially harmful measures to a conclusion. A report on its work has been forwarded to the Ecofin Council of 29 November 1999. According to paragraph H of the Code of Conduct, the reports of the Code of Conduct Group will be published, if the Council so decides. (2000/C 219 E/157) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2221/99 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission (1 December 1999) Subject: Promotions in the Commission and in the Member States Would the Commission please indicate the proportion of employees of the Commission who have been promoted by one grade, two grades and three grades in the last five-year period and provide comparisons for the civil services of the five largest Member States? Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (9 December 1999) A table with the details of the total number and proportion of Commission employees who have been promoted by one grade, two grades and three grades in the five year period from 1994-1998 is being sent directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliamentís Secretariat. The Commission does not have comparable figures for the civil services of Member States or the legal authority to require provision of such statistics