WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3236/98 by Graham MATHER to the Commission. Late payments by the Commission
Date: 1998-10-26
Institutions: European Parliament, MATHER
Subjects: EU financing, EU programme, foreign policy, payment, technical cooperation, third country

28.6.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 182/53

(1999/C 182/065)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3222/98

by Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (PPE) to the Commission

(26 October 1998)

Subject: Assessment of the impact of Commission exchange programmes on employment

Many of the Commission’s youth and student exchange programmes have already been under way for a
number of years. The Commission or private assessors contracted by it have given differing assessments of the
programmes. The only bodies to have given positive assessments of the impact of the exchange programmes
on employment are certain national agencies. Assessments have been made regionally and without
coordination by the European Union. However, it would be possible to compile a wider assessment of the
programmes’ employment impact, because for example a significant number of past participants in the
Erasmus programme have already completed their studies.

Will the Commission assess the impact of exchange programmes on employment?

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission

(15 December 1998)

In line with Article 10 of the Decision establishing the Leonardo da Vinci programme (1) and Article 8 of the
Decision establishing the Socrates programme (2), the Commission is preparing a final report on the
implementation of the programmes to be presented to Community institutions in the year 2000. These will
include 2 among other issues 2 the evaluation of the mobility measures supported by the programmes (study
periods abroad, placements and exchange programmes) and of their effects on mid-term employment.

A tracer study was carried out in 1996 (3) on the basis of a survey conducted five years after the study period
abroad of a selected group of former Erasmus students. According to this study on the relation between study
abroad and employment, career, and work tasks, many of the students (especially long-period Erasmus
students 2 6 to 12 months) succeeded in finding jobs and work tasks linked to their international experience.
About a third of these students were offered employment abroad and about one fifth were employed abroad at
the time of the survey, half of them in the Erasmus host country. Moreover, 71 % of these students were
employed by internationally-oriented organizations or companies.

(1) OJ L 340, 29.12.1994.
(2) OJ L 87, 20.4.1995.
(3)

F. Maiworm, U. Teichler, ‘Study abroad and early career experiences of former Erasmus students’, Erasmus Monograph
No 21, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd, UK, 1996.

(1999/C 182/066)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3236/98

by Graham Mather (PPE) to the Commission

(26 October 1998)

Subject: Late payments by the Commission

1. What is the average payment period for businesses executing contracts under PHARE and TACIS?

2.
Is the Commission aware that, at the end of August 1998, a company in the Hampshire North and
Oxford Euro-Constituency was suffering a cash-flow deficit of nearly £1 million from a single source, namely
the European Commission?