WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1420/99 by Roberta ANGELILLI Reorganisation of the fire brigade
C 27 E/60 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 29. 1. 2000 (2000/C 27 E/071) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1419/99 by Roberta Angelilli (NI) to the Commission (1 September 1999) Subject: Protecting jobs at the Cooperativa Ceramica Industriale, Livorno The Cooperativa Ceramica Industriale in Livorno, which has 130 employees, is Italyís largest producer of ceramic insulators. Recently it has been experiencing the damaging effects of the new policy being pursued by ENEL (Italyís national electricity company) which is intended to increase competition between suppliers by means of bulk purchasing, the awarding of supply contracts to a limited number of companies, and so on. In view of the above, can the Commission say whether or not it considers that a business strategy constitutes a serious threat to employment on account of the difficulties which it causes to many companies, in particular very small ones, which can no longer hope to win contracts? Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission (5 October 1999) On the basis of the information provided by the Honourable Member the Commission is unable to assess whether the measures taken by ENEL to obtain products from suppliers are in breach of the Community rules on competition or whether they are legitimate measures which entail no distortion or discrimination and are in compliance with the said rules in that a company with ENELís legal and economic responsibilities is obliged to take such measures for the purposes of obtaining the products in question. As a rule, a company such as ENEL invites suppliers to compete with each other on the basis of objective conditions laid down in the specifications for public procurement contracts. Suppliers, for their part, may submit tenders either on their own or as part of a consortium if they see this as necessary in order to meet the requirements set by the authority awarding the contract or as a more suitable way of countering the competition from other tenderers. (2000/C 27 E/072) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1420/99 by Roberta Angelilli (NI) to the Commission (1 September 1999) Subject: Reorganisation of the fire brigade This question has been transformed into an oral question O-0200/99. Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission (8 October 1999) The Commission does not have the information requested by the Honourable Member in its possession. Indeed, for reasons of subsidiarity, the matters in question are dealt with at Member-State level. However, we would ask the Honourable Member to refer to the Civil Defence Unitís website: http:// europa. eu. int/comm/dg11/civil/ which contains the Vade-mecum of Civil Protection in the European Unioní which includes a description of the organisation of the emergency services in the 15 Member States