WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3926/98 by Konstantinos HATZIDAKIS Publicity campaign for Greek Government education policy using European Union funds
Date: 1999-01-04
Institutions: European Parliament, HATZIDAKIS
Subjects: Community support framework, EU financing, Greece, advertising, education, public education, use of aid, vocational training

C 341/20

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.11.1999

contribute actively in order to allow the negotiations with Cyprus to proceed as quickly as possible. It will do
so notwithstanding persistent difficulties such as the fact that the Turkish-Cypriot community did not act up to
now upon the explicit invitation to participate in the negotiations. The Honourable Member will not have
failed to notice that these difficulties have led to various expressions of concern, including on behalf of certain
Member States. The Commission fully shares the hope repeatedly expressed by the Union, that the accession
negotiations will contribute positively to the search for a political solution to the Cyprus problem through the
talks under the aegis of the United Nations which must continue with a view to creating a bi-community, bi-
zonal federation.

(1999/C 341/031)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3926/98

by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE) to the Commission

(4 January 1999)

Subject: Publicity campaign for Greek Government education policy using European Union funds

The operational programme ‘Education and Initial Vocational Training’
(Epeaek) forming part of the
Community Support Framework (CSF) for Greece 4 the take-up of appropriations for which is particularly
low 4 also jointly funds the so-called ‘reform’ of secondary education, which was previously publicised using
Epeaek resources. The ‘reform’, however, has given rise to a storm of protest from teacher and parent
organisations as well as from students. The Ministry of Education has responded by launching a new publicity
campaign, taking out expensive full-page advertisements in the daily press and advertising slots on radio.
Furthermore, it is obvious that the new publicity campaign is not simply trying to inform public opinion but to
stem the swelling tide of protest from political parties and the educational community as a whole. Moreover,
the press advertisements make no reference to the Community Support Framework, except for a tiny logo as a
pretext for covering the expense from Community funds, and nor do the radio slots, whereas both are financed
from the Community Support Framework for education.

In the light of this situation, will the Commission say:

1. whether it has been informed about the Ministry of Education’s new publicity campaign and, if so, to what
extent it is satisfied with the conditions under which it is being conducted and the terms on which the CSF
is being presented,

2. what the level of expenditure is for the first and the second Ministry of Education publicity campaign and

under which Epeaek subprogramme they are being jointly funded, and

3. what measures it will take to put an end to the financing of government propaganda from Community

funds?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission

(10 March 1999)

The Commission is not aware of the particular publicity campaign to which the Honourable Member refers.
The Commission would like to point out that the national authorities are responsible for the implementation
of the actions co-funded by the structural funds, including those for information and publicity.

The Commission, therefore, has no information on the cost of this publicity campaign. However, the overall
budget, agreed by the programme’s monitoring committee for information and publicity actions on the
Epeaek programme, up to the end of the programming period, amounts to 500 million drachma (about
€1,5 million. The operation is funded through measure 1 of the sub-programme 4 (technical assistance) of the
programme ‘Education and initial training’.

The Commission and the Greek Ministry of national economy have recently set up a joint steering committee
with the aim of co-ordinating and monitoring the information and publicity activities for the Greek
Community support framework.