Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

On 18 August 2022, the Israeli forces once again attacked the seven leading Palestinian human rights organisations (Al-Haq, Addameer, the Bisan Center for Research & Development, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Health Workers Committees). The raids by the Israeli army on these NGOs (six of which had already been falsely accused of crimes) are posing an immediate risk to their staff members, while furthering the existential threat to Palestinian civil society. We have been witnessing such attacks and oppression against Palestinians for years. And yet, according to the recent statement by Josep Borell, the EU is planning to resume meetings within the framework of the EU-Israel Association Council, through which the EU continues to give legitimacy and support to oppressive Israeli politics.

While the EU is taking a strong stance against the Russian oppression of Ukraine, we continue to allow Israel to do the same to Palestine with no consequences. Can the Commission explain when the EU will start tackling the same issues in the same manner and finally stop rewarding Israel’s arbitrary action and destruction of Palestinian civil society?

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

The European Union guarantees the equality of all its 24 official languages, including Slovenian. Although multilingualism is promoted throughout the Union, in reality it is limited, as is clear on the internet and digital platforms. In practice, on the digital platforms of the European digital market there is both dubbing and subtitles for certain languages, while others, including Slovenian, are forgotten and discriminated against.

In Directive 2018/1808, the European Union specified that the means to achieve the accessibility of audiovisual media services should include, but need not be limited to, sign language, subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, spoken subtitles, and audio description. That Directive recognises the right of persons with an impairment and of the elderly to participate and be integrated in the social and cultural life of the Union and provides that audiovisual commercial communications must not include or promote any discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin or nationality.

  1. What is the Commission doing, and what does it plan to do, in connection with the fragmentation of the digital single market where language barriers have been identified?
  2. How has the Commission so far raised awareness, and how in future does it plan to increase companies’ awareness, of the benefits of the availability of online services, content and products in multiple languages, including lesser-used languages, with a view to overcoming language barriers and helping to preserve the cultural heritage of language communities?

Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission

With the proposal for a Declaration on European Digital Rights and Principles, the Commission recognises the need for a trustworthy, diverse and multilingual online environment.

The Digital Services Act[1], among other measures, will oblige very large online platforms and very large online search engines to publish their terms and conditions in the official languages of all Member States where they offer their services, and to tailor their risk assessments, where relevant, to specific regional or linguistic aspects.

As part of the supporting activities, the ‘European Language Equality’ project directly tackles the digital divide between well‐and less-resourced languages by monitoring the level of technology support across European languages and by exchanging good practice between Member States.

The Commission research programmes also cover the development and take-up of future language technologies. The ‘European Language Grid’ project also raised awareness of European language technology providers and services through its single platform.

In the Digital Europe Programme, EU small and medium-sized enterprises, public administrations, academia, and non-profit organisations have free access to an expanding set of language technologies, including machine translation, text pseudo-anonymisation, speech transcription and website translation services.

The Commission is launching the European Language Data Space to build an ecosystem of language resources, also for less-resourced languages. The goal is to increase the availability of online services, content and products in multiple languages while raising companies’ awareness of the benefits.

[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?qid=1608117147218&uri=COM%3A2020%3A825%3AFIN

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

As the war in Ukraine intensifies, many children with cancer have been forced to leave their homes and hospital beds and flee the country. Cancer itself is a problem, but treatment interruptions, stress and risk of infection might have a fatal effect on these children. Furthermore, in the event of the end of war in Ukraine and the return of children refugees with cancer to their home country, there is an uncertainty about Ukraine’s capacity to meet their health needs because of broken supply lines.

1. How is the Commission supporting the Member States with the data collection process, patient tracking and follow-up to cancer among the Ukrainian refugee population? Will the Commission consider developing guidance and protocols for this?

2. Given that children with cancer require treatment with certain protocols and sequences of medications delivered at specific intervals, will the Commission consider developing guidance and protocols on child oncological patients receiving cancer care in a Member State in case the war in Ukraine ends and they return to Ukraine?

3. In order to decrease pressure on the healthcare systems of Eastern European countries, how is the Commission supporting Member States with the relocation of Ukrainian patients from these countries to other Member States?

Answer given by Commissioner Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

The Temporary Protection Directive ensures access to health care. This procedure comprises triage (health assessments), with cancer patients identified and referral to a specialised care, ensuring continuity of treatment.

A patient transfer scheme for severely ill Ukrainian patients is implemented. The Commission works with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health to evacuate severely ill patients, including children with cancer. Poland has established a paediatric cancer patients’ hub, supporting transfers to EU countries.

The European Reference Networks (ERNs) support refugees from Ukraine suffering from a rare disease. They set up the Rare Diseases Hub Ukraine for patients triage and coordination within the 24 ERNs (four are dedicated to rare cancers and one to childhood cancers). The Commission supports the pilot hub and is part of the Steering Committee.

Under its Health Policy Platform, the Commission established a network of non-governmental and patient organisations, including for cancer, to support response to public health needs following the Russian military assault on Ukraine.

The recent Commission Communication on Ukraine covers a chapter on children protection. The Commission stands ready to work closely with Ukraine to ensure that refugees from Ukraine receive the healthcare they need in the EU .

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

Despite unequivocal evidence that the exposure of children to unhealthy food marketing is harmful to both child health and children’s rights, the EU has failed to effectively regulate such marketing for over 15 years. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) continues to rely on self-regulation, which has consistently proven ineffective in addressing the issue.

The European Parliament has explicitly called on the Commission in its Farm to Fork Strategy and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to come forward with EU-wide rules prohibiting the advertising of foods high in fat, sugar and salt to minors.

1. Considering that the AVMSD does not provide a comprehensive and effective set of rules, how does the Commission intend to make a concrete proposal to effectively regulate this matter?

2. Does the Commission plan to bring the responsibility for this important issue back to where it belongs, in DG SANTE?

3. To what extent will the Commission take into account the proposal for a directive on the approximation of the laws of Member States on the protection of children from the marketing of nutritionally poor food, which was drafted by EU law and food marketing academic experts on behalf of a coalition of over 20 NGOs?

Answer given by Commissioner Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

The Commission has undertaken several activities on responsible marketing of food. In 2019, the Joint Research Centre published a toolkit to help Member States develop marketing policies in the context of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

In 2020, a study on children exposure to marketing of food high in fat, salt or sugar was published.

To support the Farm to Fork Strategy and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the Commission launched the Best ReMaP joint action, which includes initiatives focused on reducing marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

As part of the Farm to Fork Strategy an EU Code of conduct on responsible food business and marketing practices was launched in July 2021, to help foster a food environment that makes it easier to choose healthy and sustainable diets.

Creating such a food environment is also an objective of the legislative framework for sustainable food systems announced in the Farm to Fork Strategy .

The draft initiative of the Union law and food marketing academic experts is a valuable example that can guide further action in this field.

The Commission’s framework on learning key competences (LifeComp) will also help Member States educate young people to use reliable information and services for health and social protection.

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

The recent high-profile report by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties underlines the longstanding concerns about companies processing our personal data for advertisement purposes. There is still a clear need for investigations regarding their compliance with EU law. The report shows that the tracking data and real-world location data of EU citizens is being shared 197 billion times a day in Europe alone, as a result of real-time bidding for online advertisement allocation.

In this context, we ask the Commission:

1. How will it investigate any potential compliance issues with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation?

2. Does it agree that these findings could indicate probable evidence of non-compliance of Google’s advertising practices with EU law?

3. On what basis does it maintain its decision to not open an infringement procedure against Ireland, if the Irish Data Protection Commission is not adequately equipped to start an investigation into this matter?

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

A few days ago, the Commission presented a document related to the preparation of the 2023 draft budget (SEC(2022)0250), which proposed a budget of EUR 3.4 billion for Erasmus+. To reflect this flagship programme’s growth and new ambitions for 2021-2027, such as the inclusion of people with fewer opportunities, new participant categories such as schoolchildren and adult learners and the greening of the programme, its budget has almost been doubled for 2021-2027. However, this increase was not reflected in either the 2021 budget or the 2022 budget, and a lot of projects could therefore not be financed, meaning the participants’ expectations were sadly not met.

1. In order to meet the needs of Erasmus+ participants, and in accordance with the high expectations triggered by the doubling of the budget, national agencies need a linear budget, not an exponential increase at the end of the programming period, which would put the programme’s functioning at risk. Is the Commission planning to take this situation into account in the 2023 budget?

2. In the light of the war in Ukraine and the need to welcome Ukrainian students, the Commission announced a front-loading of financial resources from the 2027 financial year onwards. Is this already reflected in the 2023 draft budget?

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

On 8 February 2022, more than 1 800 scientists and over 160 NGOs from all over the world addressed a letter to the Commission urging it to stop the construction of a wall on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Construction of the wall will impact protected and valuable natural areas, including Natura 2000 sites. Already during its construction phase, the wall is having a detrimental impact on the conservation status of species and habitats. Populations of large animals such as European bison, Eurasian lynx, moose, deer and wolves are being negatively affected. Also, during the investment planning process, no environmental impact assessment was carried out for any of the Natura 2000 sites, including the Białowieża Forest, which is a clear violation of Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive.

1. Has the Commission received a reply from the Polish authorities concerning compliance of the investment with EU environmental law? If so, what was the answer and how and when does the Commission intend to reply?

2. Does the Commission intend to take any action to halt the construction, at least until the environmental impact assessment has been carried out, as required by EU law? If so, please indicate specifically what these actions will be and when they will be carried out.

Answer given by Commissioner Sinkevičius on behalf of the European Commission

The Commission follows the construction of the fence on the Polish-Belarusian border as an element of the wider efforts to secure the Polish eastern border, which is a priority in view of the current security situation, as well as to monitor the application of EU legislation, including on the environment.

In this regard, on 29 April 2022, the Commission sent a letter to the Polish authorities recalling the obligations imposed by the Habitats Directive, especially its Article 6(3) and (4), and inviting the authorities to provide explanation on how these obligations were fulfilled in case of this project.

As of 8 June 2022, the Commission services have not yet received a reply to the letter. Once the Commission has received and assessed the reply of the Polish authorities, it will decide on the next steps.

As regards halting the construction of the project, the Commission has no competence to impose such a measure on the Member States. Only the Court of Justice of the EU can order that a project be put on halt by prescribing an interim measure if a Member State has been referred to the Court for breach of EU legislation.

Yet, this is not the case in relation to this project as there is currently no pending infringement procedure with regard to the fence on the Polish border.

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

The war in Ukraine is generating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Over four million Ukrainians refugees have arrived in the EU, of which one million minors who were forced to interrupt their studies and training activities. This will have a serious impact on Ukraine’s recovery in the post‑war phase.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, the EU has strongly responded with military and humanitarian support and financial sanctions, but has not ensured a coordinated approach to guarantee Ukrainian refugees school and university continuity, leaving the Member States to bear the burden of organising education and training initiatives without proper political and financial support.

We would therefore like to ask the Commission the following questions:

1. What actions does it intend to put in place to guarantee all Ukrainian refugee students in the EU the right to educational and university continuity?

2. It is considering the possibility of launching an extraordinary ‘Erasmus4Ukraine’ programme for university students, which would provide for free enrolment at a university during the current academic year, an exception to the requirement for there to be a learning agreement between the two universities in question and the recognition of qualifications and credits acquired at universities in the Member States?

3. Does it intend to finance the aforementioned activities using the funds for youth mobility provided for by the Erasmus+ programme that were not spent during the pandemic?

Answer given by Commissioner Gabriel on behalf of the European Commission

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Council triggered the Temporary Protection Directive, providing people fleeing the war with the right to access the state education system for those under 18 years.

Member States, though, are fully responsible for the content and organisation of their education systems, with the Commission having a supporting role.

As part of this supporting role, the Commission has immediately taken action to support pupils, students and teachers fleeing the war in Ukraine through Erasmus+, using its in-built flexibility.

Higher education institutions in the EU that participate in Erasmus+ are able to offer long-term and short-term study mobility as well as traineeships to students that have fled Ukraine.

The Commission has also dropped the requirement to have a signed learning agreement in place, while full and free access to the new Erasmus+ Online Language Support platform has been ensured.

Pupils displaced from Ukraine can now be quickly welcomed by education institutions involved in Erasmus+ cooperation projects, with flexible use of project funding.

Ukrainian teachers and trainers can receive financial support to facilitate their integration, and qualified staff may be sent, on a temporary basis, to regions where refugees are hosted.

Moreover, the Commission encouraged the Erasmus+ National Agencies to open optional application rounds for organisations interested to run initiatives related to the effects of the war.

Support is also provided through European platforms and by pooling available expertise and providing policy guidance via existing tools under the European Education Area, while working on measures to support fast-track recognition of qualifications and study periods.

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

‘Culture is and must be at the heart of the European project’ – this is Commissioner Hahn’s strong statement in the recently published Commission proposal for the 2023 EU budget.

We – the members of the Cultural Creators Friendship Group – fully agree.

In the light of the proposed 2023 budget for the Creative Europe programme (EUR 325.3 million in comparison to EUR 406.5 million for 2022), we would like to ask for clarification on the following points:

1.Can the Commission confirm that the proposed Creative Europe 2023 budget is 20 % lower than the budget for 2022?

2.Does the Commission see any contradiction between this massively reduced Creative Europe 2023 budget and Commissioner Hahn’s above-quoted statement on the place of culture in the European project?

3.Does the proposed Creative Europe 2023 budget mean that the Commission believes the COVID-19 crisis is over and that the cultural and creative sectors will not suffer from any long-term consequences of the pandemic after 2022?

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Parliamentary question

Written question to the European Commission

According to a study commissioned by the European Parliament on the cross-border enforcement of intellectual property rights in the EU, further efforts could be made at a transnational level to enforce intellectual property rights, especially when it comes to wilful large-scale online copyright infringements.

The study offers recommendations on efficient administrative processes, simplified procedures for litigating cross-border intellectual property disputes and measures for judicial cooperation between the Member States, to name but a few.

It also concludes that improvements cannot be adequately achieved through national action by the Member States alone and that action at EU level is appropriate to facilitate cross-border enforcement in the EU given the scale, impact and multi-territorial dimension of these infringements.

In the light of the foregoing, is the Commission considering measures to ensure the effective cross-border enforcement of intellectual property rights?

Answer given by Commissioner Breton on behalf of the European Commission

The Commission has taken note with great interest of the conclusions of the study on the cross border enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights in the EU.

In the IP Action Plan of 2020, the Commission has indicated that it will continue to closely monitor the application of Directive 2004/48/EC. It works together with Members States to give effect to the 2017 Commission guidance to ensure that injunctions are applied uniformly and efficiently across Member States.

Concerning piracy, the Commission will follow up on the Parliament resolution of 19 May 2021 on challenges of sports events organisers in the digital environment as indicated in the Commission’s reply to the Parliament of 20 July 2021. In this context, the Commission will also look at the cross border dimension of piracy and at the cooperation between national authorities.

The upcoming initiative for an EU Toolbox against counterfeiting aims to set out coherent, effective and coordinated action against counterfeiting, both online and offline. This initiative could also prove useful for curbing piracy.

The Digital Services Act will make it easier for national administrative or judicial authorities to send orders to intermediary services across borders to act against illegal content, and it will facilitate private enforcement.

From an international angle, the Intellectual Property Chapter of Free Trade Agreements concluded between the EU and third countries include strong enforcement measures, including at the border, that go beyond the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IP rights (TRIPS). The implementation and enforcement of such agreements is a key priority for the Commission.

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