WRITTEN QUESTION E-2647/99 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Awarding of a contract for a service that is already covered.
C 303 E/88 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 24. 10. 2000 The Community objective in the forthcoming GATS negotiations is not to provoke privatisation or a general deregulation of the health sector ü or any other sector where the interest of consumers is protected by public policy objectives ü and the Community will not accept anything which could undermine its public policy objectives in those service sectors covered by GATS which are exclusively or partly linked to the state, such as health services. The Commission has no intention to support deregulation of the health sector as a result of liberalisation within the framework of GATS. The negotiations must not undermine the universal availability and high standards of health services in Member States, nor the different regulatory models adopted in Member States. However, on the other hand, we should not rule out negotiating access for European providers to the market-based segment of such sectors in third countries. (2000/C 303 E/080) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2647/99 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission Subject: Awarding of a contract for a service that is already covered (12 January 2000) The Commission has recently published an invitation to tender (1), for the creation of an interinstitutional terminology base for the Luxembourg Translation Centre, which would be financed by the Industry Directorate-General (ex DG III) for the sum of EUR 1,5 million. The three largest European institutions (the Council, Parliament, and the Commission) already have their own terminology bases (TIS, Euterpe and Eurodiautom) and these are electronically interconnected. At the Commission there is even an interface (one-stop-terminology) developed by the internal terminology department that enables term searches with simultaneous consultation of the three databases mentioned above and others (JIAMCATT, FAO, ITU etc. ), and the use of Internet search engines. It is not clear from the contractís technical specifications if the project is designed to create a terminology base from scratch or simply to create a common interface for access to the databases mentioned above, with the addition of a validation and control function. Can the Commission answer the following: 1. Why does the Commission plan to create a structure that parallels existing ones? How can it reconcile this decision with Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 (2), amending Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 (3), the text of which affirms the need to strengthen administrative collaboration between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to making overall savings by avoiding superfluous work and parallel structures? 2. Why does the Commission intend to entrust the implementation and supervision of a project of this kind to the Translation Centre, given that ü as its director has publicly admitted ü it does not have either the experience or the necessary specific knowledge in the fields of terminology and informatics? (1) OJ S 163, 24. 8. 1999. (2) OJ L 268, 10. 11. 1995, p. 1. (3) OJ L 314, 7. 12. 1994, p. 1. Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (24 February 2000) The three largest European institutions already have their own terminology bases (TIS, Euterpe and Eurodicautom), but these are not electronically interconnected. The Commission does indeed have an interface that enables term searches with simultaneous consultation of the three major databases and others (one-stop terminology), but it is internal to the Commission. While a single access mechanism of this type could be made more widely available and comprehensive, it provides only a partial solution to 24. 10. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 303 E/89 the problems of harmonisation of terminology between the institutions and the elimination of redundancy in both data content and human and financial resources employed. The feasibility study on the creation of an interinstitutional database initiated by the interinstitutional translation committee concluded that only an interinstitutional base can really offer a solution to the content redundancy problem and meet the normative objectives linked with terminology. In reply to the specific questions: 1. The project in question is intended to replace the current multiplicity of databases with a single, central and jointly-managed terminology database for the Community. So it is meant to reduce the current parallel structures and resources in the institutions and avoids the creation of such structures in the smaller institutions and agencies of the Community. The project has been adopted by the interinstitutional translation committee and therefore enjoys the support of the translation services of all the Community institutions. No decision has, however, yet been taken on the location and management of the planned joint terminology data base. The initiative is therefore in keeping with the Translation centreís mission, set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 of 30 October 1995 amending Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 setting up áto strengthen administrative collaboration a Translation centre for bodies of the European Union, between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to rationalising working methods and making overall savings by avoiding superfluous work and the creation of expensive parallel structuresí. 2. The technical implementation of the project will be guided by an interinstitutional steering group composed of expert representatives from the Translation centre, the Parliament, the Council, the Translation service of the Commission and the Directorate general enterprise. The contract has been awarded to a firm with considerable experience in the area of database implementation and the linguistic and terminological expertise is provided by a government research institute with a world- wide reputation in the language technology field. Furthermore, the project is supervised by an expert group composed of terminology and informatics specialists from each of the Community institutions, the decentralised agencies and Member States. (2000/C 303 E/081) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2654/99 by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Commission Subject: Prevention of infectious diseases among immigrants (12 January 2000) At the Sixth International Workshop on Culture, Health and Immigrationí, held in Rome, the latest statistics from the preventative medicine section for migration, tourism and tropical dermatology of the San Gallicano Institute in Italy were issued. These show that among immigrants living in Italy infectious diseases have increased from 7 % to 11 %. Of the pathologies found among immigrants the increase in infectious diseases is particularly worrying, notably viral hepatitis A, B and C, AIDS and cases of leprosy, which had previously been fairly rare. In the light of the above: 1. Does the Commission not think it would be possible to finance ad hoc structures with the aim of carrying out health checks at the larger border crossings, in view of the growing influx of immigrants from outside the Community into the EU Member States? 2. Has the Commission undertaken or is it planning any initiatives designed to prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases among non-Community nationals in the European Union countries and their possible spread to the European population? 3. Does it intend to set up specific measures to guarantee the immigrant population access to national health services?