WRITTEN QUESTION E-0991/96 by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission (26 April 1996)

Subject: Mainstreaming of disabled people's projects in European Social Fund programmes

What proportion of ESF funding is provided to support disabled people's projects under the Youthstart, Now and Euroform Community initiatives, by number, cost and percentage?

Since the European Parliament insisted that 2/3 of funding from HORIZON is allocated to disabled people's projects, is it true that the Commission has directed applications from disability projects to this programme, as an alternative to the other Community initiatives? Is this not a violation of the principle of mainstreaming of disability initiatives within all programmes of the European Union?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (8 July 1996)

The Employment Initiative was launched in 1994 in all the Member States around three strands * NOW, which consists of measures to promote equal opportunities between women and men in the labour market, Youthstart, in favour of completely unqualified young people aged 16 to 25, and Horizon, in favour of the disabled and other disadvantaged groups.

In May 1996 the Commission decided to add a new strand to the initiative, called 'Integra', covering the 1996*1999 planning period. Horizon is now exclusively focused on projects for the disabled, while Integra supports actions in favour of the other disadvantaged groups.

The Employment Initiative supported over 2 500 projects in the Member States after the first selection round. Since the process of selecting the projects and the agreements with the promoters takes place at the level of the Member States, and since not all these procedures have been completed, the Commission does not yet have definitive data.

As regards Horizon, at the time the first call for proposals was launched (1995), this strand of the Community Employment Initiative envisaged two main target groups, namely the disabled and other disadvantaged persons. An initial analysis shows that the percentage of projects targeting the disabled ranges from 55% to 65% depending on the Member State. There are 650 projects for the disabled, i.e. 57% of the Horizon projects submitted in 1995.

The Community contribution to Horizon-disabled is 513 million ecus for the 1995*1999 period.

First indications show that only a fraction of the projects in the two other strands (NOW and Youthstart) mentions the disabled as a target group, namely 3% of the Youthstart projects and 0.5% of all the NOW projects. The Commission does not yet have consolidated figures concerning the budgets of the projects selected which have the disabled as their target group.

A provisional directory of projects selected for the Horizon strand was published in March 1996, containing an initial description of projects for the disabled (Volume 1) and other disadvantaged groups (Volume 2). A copy of this provisional directory (disabled) is being sent directly to the Honourable Member as well as to the Secretariat-General of the Parliament.

The Commission, which has no say in the project selection procedure, has never channelled requests submitted for projects in favour of the disabled towards the Horizon initiative as an alternative to the other Community initiatives. Moreover, the Commission is not aware of any regional or national practices that might favour the tendency mentioned by the Honourable Member.