EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 33/179

(2004/C 33 E/182)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1853/03

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 June 2003)

Subject: Community funding in Greece and intermediary agencies

For some time now reports have been appearing in the Greek press expressing concern at the loss of funding from the Community Support Framework (CSF). The leader of the ND Party Mr Karamanlis was justifiably critical of the Greek Government for its handling of these funds under the second CSF, resulting in a loss to Greece of EUR 468 m. It is also known that the agencies concerned select undertakings for such funding and that certain regions are of particular importance to Greece, that is to say the Aegean border areas and regions along the land border such as Ipirus, central and western Macedonia and Thrace.

In many of these areas take-up of Community funding is relatively sluggish with obvious consequences regarding their development. The Commission has already been kind enough to provide me with information in the past regarding Ipirus, the Aegean and Thrace.

Can it now give me the following details concerning the regions of central and western Macedonia:

1. How does it assess the work of the agencies administering funding under the second and third CSF?

2. What are these agencies and how were they selected?

3. What is the exact amount of funding being administered under the second and third CSF?

4. Has the Commission or any other EU body investigated the activities of these agencies or other CSF support mechanisms?

5. Which Community programmes or initiatives are currently being administered by these agencies and with what precise budget?

6. What is the added value of the contribution by these agencies in areas such as culture and improved standards of education and public health in the above regions?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(28 July 2003)

Intermediate bodies are to be considered as all public or private bodies or services acting under the responsibility of managing or paying authorities or performing tasks on their behalf in relation to final beneficiaries or the bodies or firms carrying out operations. Such bodies are selected in accordance with the national legislation in force.

The relevant intermediare bodies in West and Central Macedonia are KEPA-ANEM, the ‘Company for Development of Industrial Investments in Northern Greece’. KEPA-ANEM is also the common intermediate entity operating for Western and Central Macedonia in the framework of the Operational Programm (OP) ‘Competitiveness’. In addition, the banks granting assistance to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the ‘Local action groups’, which operate in the framework of Leader+, can be named as intermediate entities. In the year 2000, the Commission services undertook a control of the ‘Company for the development of private infrastructure in Northern Greece’.

It should be noted that in the framework of the Community Support Framework (CSF) III, intermediate entities do not manage Operational Programmes but measures within them. The fields of intervention of intermediate entities are mainly those concerning the development of the private sector and, especially, SMEs, and in the case of Leader+, the management of selected rural territories.

The budget managed by the intermediate entities is, in principle, the allocation of the respective measure. However, as CSF II is now undergoing the closure procedure, precise budgets remain at this stage to be confirmed. As regards the 2000-2006 programming period, the situation concerning the intermediate entities can be modified at any time by amending the Programming Complement. For future information in this respect, the Honourable Member is kindly requested to contact the respective Managing Authorities.

Finally, it should be noted that intermediate entities do not operate in the sectors of public health, education and culture.