WRITTEN QUESTION E-0446/00 by Christos Folias (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Official languages and the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market.
C 374 E/76 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 28. 12. 2000 (2000/C 374 E/088) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0439/00 by Elly Plooij-van Gorsel (ELDR) to the Commission (11 February 2000) Subject: European invitation to tender for EU contract for supply of gabion matting to Bolivia On 22 November 1999 a European tendering procedure (SCR-E/11095/D/S/BO) was published on the TED Alert System concerning the supply of gabion matting and gabions to Bolivia for the project to protect the town of Montero against flooding by the Pirai river. The tendering procedure was closed on 20 January 2000. 1. Can the Commission inform me of the outcome of that invitation to tender? How many firms participated? How many firms met the conditions for submitting tenders? What firm was awarded the contract and at what price, and what is that firmís nationality? 2. Can the Commission inform me why one of the conditions for the tender was that the materials supplied must bear a ácertificate of originí from an EU country, a Mercosur or Andean Pact country, or Bolivia or Chile? Is that condition in accordance with European tendering rules? 3. Can the Commission provide me with a table showing the results of all tenders for the supply of gabion matting and gabions under EU development programmes in Bolivia and the rest of South America since 1992? Can the Commission inform me of the budget entry under which the above project is being 4. financed? Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission (9 March 2000) 1. It has to be noted that the contracting authority, Searpi, and not the Commission is the authority responsible for the receipt and evaluation of offers. The results of the tender are not available yet. The tender opening session took place on 20 January 2000 and to date the beneficiary has not submitted for the Commissionís approval the evaluation report with the results of the examination of the offers and the contract award proposal. 2. According to Community procurement rules related to external aid, all supplies must originate in the countries as defined in special conditions, Article I of the tender dossier (Member States, Bolivia, Pacto Andino, Mercosur and Chili). Under Article XIV. 4 the tenderer must indicate the origin of supplies. The tenderer must present the certificate of origin to the contracting authority when the supplies arrive in the recipient country (Article 1. 10 of Part C Technical Annexí). 3. 4. Detailed statistics, up to this level, are not available. Budget line B7-310. (2000/C 374 E/089) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0446/00 by Christos Folias (PPE-DE) to the Commission (24 February 2000) Subject: Official languages and the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market An appeal has been lodged with the EU Court of the First Instance against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs) in respect of the validity of the provisions of Regulation 40/94 (1) on the Community trade mark which provides that the languages of this Office are Spanish, English, French, German and Italian and excludes all the other official languages of the European Union. 28. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 374 E/77 The Commission has intervened in favour of this provision. The provision in question introduces a very serious derogation from the fundamental principle of the equality of the eleven official languages of the Union and constitutes a case of blatant discrimination against the other languages and the European citizens who speak them. The latter are thus deprived of the right to communicate, receive and impart information and claim their rights in their own languages in matters falling within the scope of the Alicante Office. One example will suffice: the official journal of the Office is published only in the five languages mentioned above. Bearing in mind that the European Union has eleven official languages and that the Commission which is the guardian of the Treaties has an obligation to respect all eleven languages and to conduct its business in them, will the Commission say: 1. Why has it decided to intervene in a procedure in which the Council is also intervening in favour of the contentious provisions? 2. How is this intervention compatible with its obligation to respect the Treaties and thus the eleven official languages of the Community, especially since the Commission had not included this or any similar provision limiting the working languages of the Office to the five above languages in its proposal on this matter? 3. Does the Commission intend to apply the same language arrangements to its own work or is it planning to propose to the Council that the official languages of the Community be reduced to the above five languages? (1) OJ L 11, 14. 1. 1994, p. 1. Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission (10 April 2000) The Honourable Member raises questions concerning a case which is pending before the Court of First Instance. The Commission will therefore limit itself to commenting briefly on the questions, without entering into the detail of the matters to be discussed before the Court. It therefore replies as follows to the questions asked: 1. The Commissionís decision to intervene in support of the conclusions of the Council and the office for harmonization in the internal market (OHMI) was based on its view that the institutional importance of the questions raised in this case required it to take a position. 2. It is true that the language rØgime of the OHMI as decided by the Council did not figure in the Commissionís original proposal for a regulation setting up the Office. However, the Commission takes the view that the language rØgime finally adopted is lawful, bearing in mind the need to strike a balance between the principle of equal the Community trademark system, on the other. treatment on the one hand, and the efficiency of 3. The Commission has no plans to apply the language rØgime of the OHMI to its own work, or to reduce the number of official languages of the Community. (2000/C 374 E/090) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0450/00 by Francesco Musotto (PPE-DE) to the Commission (14 February 2000) Subject: Regional policy and the structural funds ü operational plan for the region of Sicily As the Commission has pointed out, the regional operational plan submitted by the Region of Sicily does not seem to respect the guiding criteria for the new Structural Funds. In particular, it appears to envisage an excessive number of intervention measures and there are substantial shortcomings in the implementing projects to back up the requested funding. In other words, the Plan submitted is too general and fragmented, which arouses various concerns about the added value of the numerous microprojects drawn up and the possible loss of Community co-financing if its content and structure are not changed in agreement with the Commission