WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3007/98 by Umberto BOSSI to the Council. Italian proposal to promote job creation in the South by means of social security contribution exemptions
C 118/176 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 29. 4. 1999 3. The declaration of Austria and Luxembourg holds that the same rules of assessment which apply to áservices of general economic interestí of public law credit institutions in Germany are also applicable to comparable Austrian and Luxembourg institutions. 4. A declaration of the Council or a Member State cannot alter the EC Treaty or its applicability in particular Member States. Therefore, possible facilities for compensation for the fulfilment of áservices of general economic interestí have to be appraised under the provisions of Article 90 (2) of the EC Treaty. (1999/C 118/224) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3002/98 by Gerhard Hager (NI) to the Commission (8 October 1998) Subject: Withdrawn proposals for directives Commission President Santer is reported to have said in the discussion begun by Kohl and Chirac on subsidiarity and the dangers of a centralistic discussion that the present European Commission has withdrawn 140 proposals for directives since it took office in 1995 (APA 647 of 16. 6. 1998/19:40). Against this background, can the Commission › confirm this report and, if it is accurate, › give a detailed list of the proposals in question and, if possible, say why it withdrew them? Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission (20 November 1998) The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that, since 1995, it has withdrawn 143 proposals which were no longer topical, 61 of them in 1995, 48 in 1996 and 34 in 1997. The Commission would point out that not only proposals for directives but proposals in general have been withdrawn. In some cases they have been overtaken by events (where a change occurred in the legal, economic or political situation which had inspired them or where the proposalís objective had been attained by other means). In other cases because the Commission now adopts another approach (for example a new proposal has already been presented or is being drafted). Naturally, the detailed lists containing these proposals have been transmitted to Parliament. The 1995 list was transmitted on 14 November 1995 (1), the 1996 list on 21 November 1996 (2) and the 1997 list on 4 February 1998 (3). (1) OJ C 344, 22. 12. 1995. (2) OJ C 2, 4. 1. 1997. (3) OJ C 40, 7. 2. 1998. (1999/C 118/225) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3007/98 by Umberto Bossi (NI) to the Council (16 October 1998) Subject: Italian proposal to promote job creation in the South by means of social security contribution exemptions The Italian Government recently submitted a proposal to promote job creation in Southern Italy by exempting businesses in the region from the payment of social security contributions, without first checking the legality of such a move with the Community authorities, as already happened in 1995 when the job training scheme (ícontratti di formazione lavoroí) was set up. Owing to the Italian Governmentís failure to make the necessary enquiries, infringement proceedings were initiated against Italy on the grounds of violation of Community rules against anti-competitive behaviour, and the companies were asked to pay back all the profits earned since 1995