Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Decision 819/95/EC establishing the Community action programme Socrates (97/C 113/06) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(97) 99 final - 97/0103(COD)

(Submitted by the Commission on 14 March 1997)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 126 and 127 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189b of the Treaty,

Whereas Decision No 819/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 1995 establishes the Community action programme Socrates (1);

Whereas Article 7 of this Decision provides for a financial framework for the implementation of the programme during the period from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 1999;

Whereas the Joint Statement by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission concerning the abovementioned Decision of 14 March 1995 provides that two years after the launching of the programme, the European Parliament and the Council will (assess) the results achieved by the programme, and that to this end the Commission will submit to them a report accompanied by any proposals which it considers appropriate, including any concerning the funding set by the legislator within the meaning of the Joint Declaration of 6 March 1995 (2), and that the European Parliament and the Council will act on those proposals at the earliest opportunity (3);

Whereas the report submitted by the Commission (4) pursuant to the abovementioned Joint Statement has set out the outstanding results achieved by the programme during the first two years following its adoption;

Whereas the programme has been particularly well received in the educational community, and there is a need to maintain its forward momentum towards achieving its objectives;

Whereas the demand for support is already many times higher than the available resources and is continuing to rise;

Whereas there is a need to ensure that a critical mass of funding is maintained, thereby ensuring that the quality of the collaborative activities to be supported is not endangered;

Whereas there is a need to provide continuity of support for projects during their developmental phase, while nonetheless reserving sufficient funds to support new projects and activities, thereby safeguarding the programme's potential for contributing to innovation;

Whereas there is therefore a need to adjust the financial framework for the programme in order to maintain the programme's capacity to fulfil the objectives set out in the Decision establishing the programme,

HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Article 7 (1) of Decision No 819/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 1995 shall be replaced by the following:

'The financial framework for implementation of this programme for the period referred to in Article 1 shall be ECU 900 million.`

Article 2

This Decision shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

(1) OJ No L 87, 20. 4. 1995, p. 10.

(2) Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 6 March 1995 on the incorporation of financial provisions into legislative acts (95/C 293/03) (OJ No C 293, 8. 11. 1995, p. 4).

(3) OJ No L 132, 16. 6. 1995, p. 18.

(4) COM(97) final - 97/0103(COD).