WRITTEN QUESTION P-2923/98

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(25 September 1998)

Subject: Commission's opinion regarding statement by the Greek Minister of Education

On 9 September 1998, I published in full the reply given by Commissioner P. Flynn, dated 3 September 1998, to my Written Question E-1861/98(1) concerning the implementation of the "Education and Initial Vocational Training" programme in Greece. Following the publication of this reply, the Greek Minister of Education then issued a statement contradicting what had been said by me and by a fellow Greek MEP, who had also published a similar reply by the Commission. In his statement the Greek Minister indicated that the sources quoted (the reply by Commissioner Flynn) were inaccurate and that the take-up rate of funding was in fact 39 % and would reach 50 % by the end of the year. The Minister went on to say that those concerned should "seek reliable information from the Ministry and avoid exposing themselves to criticism by the Greek public as a result of their irresponsible utterances". Since the MEPs concerned are being accused of irresponsibility for communicating to the Greek people the information provided by the Commission itself on 3 September 1998, can the Commission confirm or deny the information contained in its reply?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission

(21 October 1998)

The figures given in the reply to Written Question E-1861/98 by Mr Alavanos correspond to the financial situation of the operational programme in May 1998. They represent payments made by the Member State as a percentage of the respective total budgets. These figures were presented by the Ministry of Education at the meeting of the programme's monitoring committee held on 7 May 1998. At that time, the European social fund (ESF) rate of payments for the programme was indeed 29 %.

In September 1998, the Commission proceeded with the final payment for 1997 on the basis of the declaration of expenditure for that year submitted by the Member State. Taking into account this new payment, the current ESF rates of payments and commitments amount to 34,48 % and 37,39 % respectively (payments and commitments in the Community budget as percentages of total ESF contribution to the programme).

In the meantime and in the framework of the mid-term review of the Greek community support framework (CSF), the operational programme "Education and initial training" was scaled down by ECU 190 million of ESF contribution (decision of the CSF monitoring committee taken on 21 July 1998). If this reduction of the ESF allocation to the programme is taken into consideration, then the ESF rates of payments and commitments become 41 % and 44,5 % respectively.

As far as the European regional development fund (ERDF) part of the programme is concerned, the payments and commitments rates before the mid-term review were 34,5 % and 40,6 % respectively. Following the reinforcement of the revised programme by ECU 49 million of ERDF credits, the above figures become 28,3 % and 33,2 %.

Overall after the revision of the programme, the current rates of payments and commitments amount to 38,3 % and 42 % respectively.

(1) OJ C 13, 18.1.1999, p. 104.