Parliamentary question - P-1319/2009Parliamentary question
P-1319/2009

Public consultation by the Commission

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1319/09
by Véronique Mathieu (PPE‑DE)
to the Commission

In its judgment of 20 November 2008 in Case T-185/05, Italy v the Commission, the Court of First Instance of the European Communities annulled the decision taken by the Commission at its 1 678th meeting of 10 November 2004 that external publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities of vacancy notices for senior management posts would be in German, English and French.

This decision by the Court of First Instance is in accordance with the principle of equal treatment and access to information for European citizens.

Contrary to this principle, with regard to which it was condemned, the Commission continues to publish its public consultations only in English, disregarding the other 22 official EU languages and the vast majority of European citizens for whom English is not their mother tongue. In addition to the disregard shown for this fundamental principle, citizens are required to have Internet access in order to reply to questionnaires, which is not the case for everyone.

For example, the consultation on trapping, entitled ‘Your attitude towards the regulation of trapping in the EU’, is only available in English, preventing a large number of citizens from giving their views on this issue. This situation will lead to clear disparity between the replies received and to overrepresentation of certain views to the detriment of others, creating a bias in the results of the consultation.

In these circumstances, how does the Commission justify the pursuit of this unfair practice of publishing its public consultations in only one language?

If it is unable to give a satisfactory reply, the Commission will have to annul the consultation currently taking place on trapping and introduce a new consultation available in all EU languages, in order to respect the principle of equality between European citizens.

OJ C 189, 13/07/2010