[pic] | COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES |

Brussels, 28.8.2006

COM(2006) 465 final

2004/0152 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Decision creating the Youth in Action programme for the period 2007-2013

2004/0152 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Decision creating the Youth in Action programme for the period 2007-2013

1. BACKGROUND

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council (document COM(2004) 471 final – 2004/0152(COD)): | 14 July 2004 |

Date of the opinion of the Committee of the Regions: Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee | 17 November 2004 10 March 2005 |

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: | 25 October 2005 |

Date of the revised proposal of the Commission (document COM(2006) 228 final): | 24 May 2006 |

Date of adoption of the common position: | 24 July 2006 |

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL

The Youth in Action programme will primarily aim to promote experiences of European citizenship by young people by offering them ways and means to make it more concrete through various forms of active engagement at all levels.

It should also seek to promote solidarity between young people, inter alia, in order to strengthen social cohesion in the Union and to promote mutual understanding of young people in different countries, including Partner Countries outside the European Union. It should also promote the sense of initiative, the creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit of young people and to make it possible for them to acquire the competences essential to their personal and professional development.

Finally, it should contribute to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the ability of youth organisations to foster youth activities and to promote European cooperation on youth policy. The avowed aim is to maximise the impact of Community action at national, regional and local levels whilst fully abiding by the principle of subsidiarity. In order to achieve these aims, the programme will have five separate and mutually complementary strands.

3. COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION

The common position was adopted on 24 July 2006 by unanimity. The Commission can endorse it because it considers it an appropriate compromise which is largely based on the amended Commission proposal, which itself accepted a large number of the amendments made by the European Parliament in first reading and by the Council in the partial political agreement. Furthermore the amendments to the revised Commission proposal reflect an agreement reached between the three institutions in view of a rapid adoption of the decision establishing the programme.

In relation to the amended Commission proposal, only a few slight changes of substance have been made:

a) the minimum amount to be allocated to Action 3 of the Programme (Youth in the World) is fixed at the level of 6% instead of 4% in the amended Commission proposal;

b) the monitoring of the agreement with the European Youth Forum, including the annual work plan and the annual report of the Forum, falls under the remit of the management procedure ("comitology").

As regards the increase of the minimum allocation to Action 3, it can be noted that it reduces only slightly the remaining margin to be allocated to the various strands of the programme according to the annual priorities (22% instead of 24%).

The Commission notes that the equivalent of the financial envelope of EUR 785 million in 2004 prices referred to in the Council common position (Article 13) is EUR 885 million in current prices.

4. CONCLUSION

The Commission considers that the common position adopted on 24 July 2006 by unanimity is in line with the essential objectives and underlying approach of its proposal. It notes that the Chair of the EP Culture and Education Committee has indicated in a letter to the Council Presidency of 26 June 2006 that if the common position was adopted as such he would recommend to the Committee to approve the common position in second reading. The Commission can therefore support the common position which reflects the agreement reached between the three institutions.