By Reuters Special to CNET News.com December 21, 1999, 2:00 p.m. PT

BRUSSELS, Belgium--The European Commission today said it will have experts in nuclear safety, financial markets and telecommunications working on New Year's Eve and beyond to monitor any computer-related problems in the European Union arising from the millennium date change.

"This center will form part of a greater pan-European network monitoring the Y2K situation around the year end," Commission spokesman Per Haugaard told the EU executives' daily news briefing.

A handful of officials with expertise in sensitive sectors will staff the center continuously from Dec. 31 to early on Jan. 5, he said.

With many businesses not planning to open until Jan. 4 to make sure they can cope with any problems, the center will stay open until close of business on the U.S. West Coast that day.

The center will be an "early warning point" for handling potentially critical situations and also allow existing channels of cooperation to be activated in situations where any EU-wide responses are needed.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

Answers

NATO pledges to monitor worldwide Y2K switch

Thursday 23 December, 1999

NATO says it will monitor Y2K bug problems around the world during the passage to 2000 and if necessary raise the alert.

A statement issued from NATO headquarters in Brussels says a specially created body, the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), will manage the process for the 45 NATO partner countries.

NATO will also keep in constant contact with other international organisations such as the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

NATO has already identified about 30 systems or computer networks that could pose a problem: mainly command, control and communications sytems.

In October, the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) expressed concern about the safety of Soviet-designed nuclear plants, including the Chernobyl-type reactors in Russia and the Ukraine.

The IAEA said at the beginning of the month that Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine had not been prepared for the Y2K bug.

But Ukraine said last week that its five nuclear stations, including Chernobyl, were now ready to cope with the Y2K switch.

Chinese officials said earlier this month that their nuclear power stations could safely shut down if there any problems from the bug.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 1999