WRITTEN QUESTION E-0922/00

by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(25 March 2000)

Subject: Promotion of the euro to children

1. Could the Commission please state what funding has been given to the Organisation Informer et Ensigner l'Europe et la Democratie (Inform and Teach about Europe and Democracy) by the European Commission and/or any other European Union organisations? In particular, what funds have been devoted to the production and the dissemination of the educational video produced by this organisation as a result of work in the Brussels school Nos Enfants and referred to in Infuro, Bulletin No 14?

2. Could the Commission please state how much EU funding has been devoted to projects aimed at promoting the euro in schools and/or to children (a) in the last 12 months and (b) over the last five years? Could the Commission please state what organisations have received funding to promote the euro in schools and/or to children?

3. To the knowledge of the Commission, have any projects designed to promote the euro to UK children been run in the last 12 months? If so, can the Commission please give details of all such projects including the names of any schools which took part? Can the Commission give details of how much money was provided for such projects by the Commission and/or any other EU institution?

4. How can the Commission reconcile the funding of projects aimed at persuading children of the merits of the euro with the fundamental principle that neither schools nor public authorities should engage in the political indoctrination of children?

5. Will the Commission guarantee to cease all campaigning to promote the single currency in the UK, since funding such campaigns constitutes an unwarranted political interference in the democratic process in the UK, as it decides on whether or not to join the euro?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(12 May 2000)

1. The non-profit-making organisation mentioned by the Honourable Member received, under the young people partnership programme, assistance of 30 000 (10 % of the total cost) for the co-production of the cassette The euro, it's child's play. At the initiative of the Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee, and in the presence of the President of the Parliament, the Chairman of the Economic and Social Committee and a member of the Commission, a presentation to the press was organised. This event was very well received, including by the Anglo-Saxon press.

Given the success of this video production and in order to meet the many requests from associations and the educational world, in 1997 the Commission purchased 8 200 cassettes in various language versions for a total amount of 41 000. They are distributed upon request only. Several Member States of the euro zone have incorporated this tool into the official teaching materials distributed in the educational networks to prepare teachers and pupils for the introduction of the euro into the everyday life of each citizen.

In order to allow the Honourable Member to appreciate herself the purely educational nature of this video, a copy is being sent to her directly and to the Secretariat-General of the Parliament.

2. Under the Prince programme, a budget heading created at the initiative of the Parliament in order to finance information and communication measures on the euro, the Commission developed a programme of partnership with civil society, organised on the basis of a call for proposals. This is the context in which transnational projects targeted at school and youth circles have been selected.

For 1999, seven information projects about the euro for young people were selected for a total amount of 519 166. Over the past five years, the Commission has counted eleven different projects for an amount of 767 275. The beneficiaries of this assistance are all non-profit-making associations, the list of which is being sent to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat-General of the Parliament.

3. No direct measures among children have been conducted in the United Kingdom over the past twelve months.

4. The authorities of the Member States that belong to the euro zone decide on the priority target groups within the framework of the bilateral agreements signed with the Commission and the Parliament. The educational world and young people are among the priority target groups. This objective is clearly stated in the communication concerning the communication strategy to be adopted in the final stages of the introduction of economic and monetary union, which was approved by the Commission in early February 2000(1). The draft report on the euro communication strategy, which is currently being drafted and whose rapporteur is the Honourable Member Mr Karas, also contains a very strong focus in this area, stating that young people, and especially school pupils, form a very precious target group because many of them are open about the euro and are therefore a well-defined target group.

5. To date, the Commission has signed no bilateral agreements on the euro with the United Kingdom. It is nevertheless willing to respond to any request for information that it may receive.

(1) COM(2000) 57 final.