WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3560/98 by Klaus LUKAS European Training Foundation and missing EU funds
Date: 1998-12-01
Institutions: European Parliament, LUKAS
Subjects: EU aid, EU financing, EU programme, European Training Foundation, France, Poland, bankruptcy, educational institution, use of aid, validation of expenditure

11.10.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 289/61

(1999/C 289/080)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3560/98

by Klaus Lukas (NI) to the Commission

(1 December 1998)

Subject: European Training Foundation and missing EU funds

The member undersigned has been given information according to which funds of the European Training
Foundation were said to be ‘missing’ following the bankruptcy of a Polish-French secondary school in Poznan´ .
It appears that payments continued to be effected following the bankruptcy.

Could the Commission answer the following questions:

. can the Commission provide any information with regard to the fate of approximately ECU 2 million
which were invested by the European Training Foundation, which the Commission controls and finances,
in a bankrupt Polish-French secondary school in Poznan´ ?

. why did payments continue to be effected following the bankruptcy of the school?

. what amounts were paid?

. was any effort made to recover the funds?

. if so, with what success?

. if not, why not?

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission

(18 January 1999)

The Commission draws the Honourable Member’s attention to the fact that no funds have gone missing in
connection with the bankruptcy of the Franco-Polish School to which he refers.

This school, as an association of French and Polish partners eligible for financial assistance under the Tempus-
Phare programme, submitted four joint European projects between 1994 and 1996, which were funded on the
basis of the annual procedures and in conformity with the selection criteria applicable to that programme. The
total amount allocated was € 1,5 million. The four projects concerned were implemented in line with the
agreed schedule, until the dissolving of the association led to the bankruptcy of the school, which went into
liquidation on 30 September 1996.

The Commission, in exercising its monitoring prerogatives, became aware of this situation on 3 January 1997.
A fund recovery procedure was initiated, after checking with the partners in the association, in the light of the
financial analysis of implementation of the projects and on the basis of additional information provided by the
European Training Foundation, in cooperation with the Polish liquidator.

The Commission is thus in the process of recovering the amount of € 471 000 corresponding to sums
transferred but not used, together with an amount of € 143 000 separately identified by the liquidator as
payments made in September and December 1996,
i.e. after the date of bankruptcy and before the
Commission became aware of the facts. In addition, income from the sale, to the highest bidder, of materials
transferred to the Franco-Polish School in the context of implementation of the projects will also be transferred
to the Commission.

Consequently, the liquidation process has not involved the disappearance of funds, and the Commission has
done everything possible to protect Community interests by taking all the necessary measures once it became
aware of the facts.