91998E3880

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3880/98

by Patricia McKenna (V) to the Commission

(11 December 1998)

Subject: Bilderberg meetings

Can the Commission explain more clearly its answer to my question H-0933/98(1), where it insists that participants attend Bilderberg meetings "in a private capacity", contrary to all the evidence that they are far from being purely private meetings?

If they are private meetings, why does the Commission announce them in its press communiqués, published by Reuters? Would it announce that a Commissioner was attending a conference on stamp-collecting if that was his or her personal hobby?

Why is it that Commissioners attending tend to be relevant to items on the agenda - Commissioner van den Broek for enlargement, the former Yugoslavia and Turkey, Commissioner Bjerregaard for global governance (which also applies to the climate), Commissioner Monti for the European economy (internal market) and Commissioner Brittan for the EU/US market?

Most recently, at Turnberry, Minister George Robertson was ferried by military helicopter on the clear understanding that he was present in an official capacity, as has happened in the past with Prime Minister Blair and former Minister Kenneth Clarke, now a member of the Steering Committee. Does the Commission really expect Members of Parliament to accept that British ministers are attending these meetings in their official capacities, while Commissioners attend the same meetings in a private capacity?

Why would the police exclude, and even arrest and charge, card-carrying journalists if the meetings were genuinely private, since it would then be the responsibility of the organisers to control journalists' access to the meetings, and the policy would merely conduct security checks to ensure the safety of the participants?

As former Commissioners derive continuing rights from and have continuing obligations towards the European Union, it surely behoves them to answer questions on these meetings should the Commission choose to ask them. Will the Commission now undertake to ask all former Commissioners still living whether they attended these and similar meetings during their time as Commissioners?

Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission

(19 January 1999)

The Commission's reply that Members of the Commission who attended Bilderberg meetings expressed their personal views means that they were not representing the Commission, that they did not speak on behalf of the Commission and that their comments were not binding on the Commission. Naturally they were invited to attend the meetings mainly on account of their functions. The Commission considers that its Members should be free to express their views on subjects relating to the work of the Community, in particular during exchanges of views in international forums, without their participation being in any way binding on the Commission.

(1) Verbatim report of proceedings of the European Parliament, November 1998.