WRITTEN QUESTION E-2802/97 by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Commission (1 September 1997)

Subject: Commission funding of a report on minorities in Europe

Last year, an organization called 'The Minority Rights Group' based at 379, Brixton Road, London SW9 7DE received ECU 118 775 under budget heading B7-7040 'Training and internship for minorities on international standards relating to minorities' for an initiative which began in April 1996 and is due to end in September 1997.

Recently, the same organization published a report entitled 'Protection of Minority Rights in Europe - Policy Recommendations'. Among the many inaccuracies in the report there is also a map which shows the northern part of Greece supposedly inhabited by 'Macedonian Slavs'. This assertion is flagrantly untrue and might be described as extremely tendentious.

Did the Commission fund this particular initiative and by what amount? How many other initiatives by the above organization have received Commission support?

Answer given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission (14 October 1997)

The financing of human rights and democracy schemes from the Community budget is the subject of various annual reports that the Commission addresses to Parliament and the Council, notably a November 1991 report on the implementation of the resolution of the Council and the Member States meeting within the Council on the human rights aspects of development cooperation policy ((Doc. SEC(96) 378. )) and a report on the implementation of measures intended to promote observance of human rights and democratic principles which covers all the budget headings of Chapter B7.70 'European initiative for democracy and the protection of human rights' ((Doc. COM(96) 672 Final. )).

Community support for this kind of scheme is contingent on prior examination of each project to check that the activities to be implemented are in keeping with the Community's priorities. That said, the opinions expressed by the beneficiary organisation in the context of each project commit only the latter and do not necessarily reflect those of the Commission.

The Minority Rights Group (MRG) is well known in international and regional forums for its solid commitment to the protection of minorities over the years and has received Community support for a number of projects to protect minorities. As the Commission does not have a copy of the annual report referred to by the Honourable Member it cannot comment on it. It is possible that it was produced with the NGO's own funds or with other sources of funding.

In 1996 the Commission gave the MRG, based in London, a grant of ECU 95 000 to run training workshops over a two-year period for representatives of minorities in connection with UN working groups on minorities. The project is currently under way.

Other MRG (London) projects receiving Commission support are:

- 1994: ECU 60 000 for the 'Communication and networking programme' designed to strengthen the dissemination of information on minorities' problems in the world, chiefly through publications.

- 1993: ECU 154 360 for the 'Programme of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of minorities' aimed at covering the costs of the Cairo conference on minorities in the Arab world, a number of research projects, publication of information on the concept of minorities rights, appeals and the scope for obtaining financial support and on work within the United Nations.

- 1993: ECU 30 000 for the 'Minority rights group' project, also aimed at strengthening the NGO's activity in the field of publications and education on minority rights.

- 1992: ECU 40 000 for the '1992 programme of activities'.

- 1990: ECU 25 000 for the 1990/1991 programme of activities'.

Another branch of the NGO, based in Finland, also received ECU 18 000 from the Commission in 1995 for a project on 'minorities and their right of political participation'. It involved an international seminar on minorities to relaunch the debate within the United Nations and the Finnish parliament, plus the financing of publications relating to the seminar.