WRITTEN QUESTION E-0560/99

by John Iversen (PSE) to the Commission

(12 March 1999)

Subject: New procedure for allocating funds from ISPO

In November 1998 the Department of Information and Media Sciences applied for funding from ISPO to hold a conference on the subject of the information and media society. The department received a favourable response to its application and was even encouraged to expand the conference and increase the amount of the sum applied for. The organisers then began planning the conference which involved over 100 people from more than 18 different countries.

On 1 December 1998 ISAC/ISPO gave an assurance that it would subsidise a conference in Århus in February 1999 to the extent of ECU 48 000.

A letter from Martina Haak makes it clear that ISPO will be including the conference on its home page. Suddenly, on 4 February 1999, a letter is sent to Århus University informing them that the Commission is withdrawing its pledge. This is explained in greater detail in a letter from Jörg Wenzel to Professor Per Jauert on 5 February 1999. It further transpires that Århus University has incurred expenditure totalling DKR 127 000 on the conference that was not held.

How does the Commission intend to compensate Århus University for expenditure relating to the conference?

Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission

(30 April 1999)

The University of Aarhus contacted the Information society promotion office(ISPO) in autumn 1998 seeking support for a workshop or conference on the topic "Local media and the information society" they were planning. A formal grant application was received only on 20 November 1998, and on 1 December, the preliminary analysis performed by ISPO on the content and approach for the proposed conference was concluded with a favourable opinion on the possible allocation of the requested grant of 49,5 % of the budgeted expenses. The application was then submitted by ISPO to the further stages of the decision procedure in the Commission.

Following contacts from the organizers in order to know about the processing of their request, the preliminary favourable opinion of ISPO was informally transmitted to the University of Aarhus on 2 December, explicitly stating however that no notice of final acceptance could be given before an official Commission decision was taken, and that this would still take some time (possibly until the end of December). This opinion was not an official Commission decision on the request, and has never been presented to the University of Aarhus in such a manner.

Furthermore, in the context of the contacts with the organizers, the ISPO secretariat confirmed that a hyperlink to the conference webpage would be put on the ISPO website, a common practice for many other conferences and events on information society (IS) topics, which is fully in line with the objectives assigned to ISPO when established by the Commission. The ISPO homepage is simply a dissemination tool which aims to give as broad a picture as possible of information society related activities in the Community, and access to further information in other websites, by establishing hyperlinks when appropriate. It is important to understand that a link to a conference webpage from the ISPO homepage, cannot be taken as proof of a Commission commitment towards an event. Such links are often set upon request from organizers, independently of any financial support.

It was also suggested that the conference organizers included a representative from a project lead by the city of Stockholm in an effort to bring forward activities that could be of interest to the participants and enhance the conference programme.

On 1 January 1999, new rules on the allocation of grants from the Commission came into force. In respect of this procedure, the present application was presented to the Grants evaluation committee at its first meeting on 1 February. Following the committee's conclusions the competent services concluded in the non attribution of the requested grant. This was notified on 4 February 1999 to the University of Aarhus, more than 3 weeks before the planned event.

As no written official confirmation had been communicated to the organizer and if, as is now stated to be the case, the Commission's financial contribution was essential for the implementation of the conference, it would have appeared advisable for the organizer to postpone the final organizational activities, until an official commitment from the Commission had been given. Regretfully this was not the case, and the organizers claim to have suffered a loss. The Commission cannot be considered as liable for this loss, as the expenses incurred have been made without any official commitment or instructions from the Commission, and it is not evident that the University of Aarhus has taken the best course of action in order to avoid the losses, when the grant for the realization of the conference on 25-26 February 1999 was declined.

The Commission regrets that this event could not take place, even if it fitted in principle into the aims of the ISPO work programme.

The Commission also wishes to confirm that in the framework of the new harmonized and more transparent procedures for allocation of grants, a call for applications for grant under the Promise programme adopted by the Council on 30 March 1998(1) to promote IS in Europe, managed by ISPO, should be published in the Official journal in the coming weeks.

Finally, the Commission expresses the hope that this incident will not hinder a fruitful co-operation with the University of Aarhus in the future.

(1) OJ L 107, 7.4.1998.