WRITTEN QUESTION P-2009/03

by José Ribeiro e Castro (UEN) to the Commission

(11 June 2003)

Subject: Women's organisations Budget Item A-3046

In the answer to my question in April on the above subject (Written Question E-1436/03(1)), I was surprised to learn that, as far as the new Item A-3046 was concerned, the Commission had merely issued a call for proposals with a view to financing a network of leading players involved in providing aid to victims of trafficking in women. Having then consulted the text of public call for proposals No VP/2002/14, to which the answer referred and of which, up to that point, I had known absolutely nothing, I discovered that the Commission had severely restricted the scope of the new Item A-3046, created in 2002 and entered again in the 2003 budget.

Parliament approved this item on the understanding that any women's organisations should be eligible to benefit, the only qualification being that they should not belong to the European Women's Lobby (LEF/EWL). The aim in policy and budgetary terms was precisely to enable other women's organisations, outside the LEF/EWL monopoly, to be supported. The Commission, however, has sought to impose a significant new restriction.

This way of proceeding is very surprising and I have my doubts as to whether it is even legal. It is legitimate to ask whether the Commission has introduced a form of discrimination where women's organisations are concerned, by laying down a requirement contrary to the will of Parliament and without regard to the budgetary authority and employing a means of favouring some NGOs at the expense of others. It is legitimate to ask whether the Commission has distorted the real intention of Parliament and the budgetary authority, because if they had wished to confine themselves to the problem of trafficking in women, they would obviously have said so and expressly made the necessary provision. There is also reason to suspect that the Commission may have acted specifically with the aim of helping the IRENE organisation, adding to its existing funding, since, according to my information, it was already benefiting under other Community programmes, including for example Daphne.

The Commission:

- can it therefore say what legal basis has entitled it, through call for proposals No VP/2002/14, to restrict the scope of the new Item A-3046 to a single objective, despite the fact that the budgetary authority established the item on an open footing;

- can it give an assurance that it has not acted deliberately for the benefit of IRENE, already supported under other Community programmes;

- what answer will it give to other European women's organisations, which, when seeking aid under Item A-3046, suffer unfair discrimination and are totally excluded simply because they do not belong to the LEF/EWL (although that was the condition laid down by the budgetary authority) or to IRENE (the new sole recipient);

- does it believe its actions to be lawful and proper?

(1) OJ C 268 E, 7.11.2003, p. 198.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(7 July 2003)

As announced by the Member of the Commission responsible for Employment and Social Affairs during her intervention at the Women's Rights Committee of the Parliament on 18 April 2002, the Commission had decided to allocate the EUR 300 000 voted by the Parliament under the new 2002 budget heading A-3046 to support, following an open call for proposals (VP/2002/014), the activities of groups (largely non-governmental organisations and charities) which are actively involved in assisting the female victims of trafficking.

The Commission reached this decision mainly due to the fact that such groups tend to be poorly and sporadically funded, and to operate locally and in isolation from each other; thus it has not been possible to develop coherent approaches or to exchange experience. The financial support provided in order to bring together those actors contributes to better co-operate and co-ordinate their actions for assisting female victims of trafficking overcome their plight and reintegrate the society. Moreover, in delimitating the scope of the relevant call for proposals by focusing on the theme of on the groundassistance to women victims of trafficking, the Commission expressed its wish to avoid dispersion of resources and to ensure the effectiveness of its intervention.

It should be noted in this connection that the members of the Women's Rights Committee have on various occasions expressed satisfaction that the plight of female victims of trafficking would be supported in this way and wished the Commission success.

Under the 2003 budget and in order to ensure continuity and efficiency with regard to the type of activities that have received financial support in 2002 through budget heading A-3046, the Commission has decided to launch the relevant open call for proposals covering the same theme as in 2002. This approach does not, however, prejudice the future, as a rotating system of priority issues could be envisaged for receiving funding under the said budget heading.

With regard to the previous contracts concluded between the Commission and IRENE, the written declaration provided by IRENE in the application form submitted under the above-mentioned call for proposals clearly mentions that those were already completed, with the exception of two; however, this does not constitute a criterion for rejecting a proposal given, in particular, that the subject matter of the previous contracts is different from the scope of the call for proposals.