WRITTEN QUESTION E-0792/97 by Jean-Yves Le Gallou (NI) to the Commission (10 March 1997)

Subject: URBAN programme

Can the Commission give details of the content of the operations planned for the municipality of Mureaux (Yvelines) as part of the Community's URBAN programme (heading B2-145) and the complete list of associations and bodies subsidized under this programme with the exact amount of the subsidies?

Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (6 May 1997)

The Les Mureaux Urban programme is based on three priorities designed to promote access to employment for its inhabitants, to maintain and develop economic activity there and to make the district more attractive by improving access to employment areas.

These aims will be achieved by a number of measures at an estimated total cost of ECU 17.04 million, of which ECU 7 million will come from the Structural Funds.

According to the information currently available to the Commission, the following operations are in progress.

Priority 1

- Measure 1: promoting literacy

Establishment of a one-stop information centre to assess, train and guide people and to supply resources for the socio-economic partners. The promoter is the city. Two hundred women have already followed a literacy course.

- Measure 2: various child-care facilities

Establishment of a children's centre including drop-in nurseries, the 'Les Primevères' parents-and-children area and a creche run by parents. The promoter is the city. A draft guideline should be available in the first quarter of 1997.

- Measure 3: an employment area (construction of a central building)

Establishment of a one-stop shop for social purposes: local agency, focal point for local aspects of integration through employment, premises for the local employment agency, training and literacy classes. The promoter is the city. A building is being constructed and is expected to open in the first half of 1998.

- Measure 3a: establishment of firms offering jobs to the unemployed

Establishment and installation of firms offering jobs to the unemployed including a restaurant for these firms, Cana, which opened in June 1996, a project for ironing, mending and the sale of clothes (feasibility study carried out in October 1996) and expansion of the activities of the existing firm 'Triporteurs' (the feasibility study will be carried out in 1997).

Priority 2

- Measure 7: facilities for economic activity in the area

Restoration of the ground floors of buildings on the edge of the Musiciens quarter and new building work to extend them are being carried out by the lessor. Change of use of four floors of the Bizet tower by the lessor Opievoy. Two floors will be altered initially. Studies have been completed and the call for tenders is ready for publication. Construction of a frontage opposite the shopping centre by the city, as promoter. The acquisition of the land by the city is in hand.

- Measure 7a: modernization of neighbourhood facilities

Improvement of a neighbourhood sports complex (Brossolette). The promoter is the city. The call for tenders is expected to be published in the first quarter of 1997 with work being carried out during 1997.

Priority 3

- Measure 8: road transport

To encourage the installation of information points. To restructure bus signs. The city and the inter-municipal body for the Seine Valley (SICVVS) are the promoters. Signs and communications measures are planned for 1997.

- Measure 9: link roads

Construction and extension work on the south-western road network to link areas to the east of the industrial area. The city is the promoter. Work started in the last quarter of 1996 on the southern link road for the site.

- Measure 10: improved links for the district to the town centre: the 'Fil d'Ariane'

Creation of a public walkway crossing the district and connecting it to the town centre. The city is the promoter. Work has started.

In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the decision to allocate appropriations to each individual project is a matter for the Member State and is carried out through the local programming committees. The complete list of the associations or bodies which received grants will be notified to the Commission, for information, only at the next Monitoring Committee meeting.