WRITTEN QUESTION E-1896/99 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Youth for Europe Programme.
Date: 1999-10-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, EU programme, economic support, financial control, management, promotion of the European idea

C 170 E/118

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.6.2000

itself of Siemens Nixdorf Retail and Banking Systems GmbH, a subsidiary active on that market. The
Commission has therefore decided to authorise the joint venture on condition that Siemens complies fully
with that undertaking.

The Commission has assured itself that the operation to set up a joint venture between Fujitsu and
Siemens will not distort competition on the relevant markets in the European Union. It has not laid down
any social conditions relating to the maintenance or creation of jobs. The Merger Regulation does not
provide for such conditions to be imposed on firms.

In this matter, the Commission does not possess any information allowing it to conclude that that the joint
venture will result in job losses. The prime purpose of the restructuring is to enable Siemens and Fujitsu to
offer a full range of computer hardware. The ranges currently offered by them can be regarded as being
complementary and so the joint venture will not create any substantially overlapping of activities.

In a more general context, operations of this kind must be viewed positively since they often satisfy the
requirements of dynamic competition. They are apt to structure markets, increase the competitiveness of
European industry and improve the conditions for job-creating growth.

The Commission would remind the Honourable Member that two Community directives on worker
information and consultation may be applicable in this case: Council Directive 98/0059/EC of
20 July 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies (2)
and Council Directive 94/0045/EC of 22 September 1994 on the establishment of a European Works
Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for
the purposes of informing and consulting employees (3).

Under those Directives and the relevant national provisions transposing them and under the agreements
concluded within the Siemens and Fujitsu groups on the establishment of European works councils,
workers(cid:146) representatives should, where appropriate, be informed about, and consulted on, the operation
referred to by the Honourable Member and on any social repercussions it might have, and this at both
international and national level.

(1) OJ L 180, 9.7.1997.
(2) OJ L 225, 12.8.1998.
(3) OJ L 254, 30.9.1994.

(2000/C 170 E/140)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1896/99

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(29 October 1999)

Subject: Youth for Europe Programme

Would the Commission state what agencies (public or private), institutions, companies, cooperatives and
individuals have been allocated funding (specifying whether payments have already been made) under the
Youth for Europe Programme, aimed at involving young people in the process of European integration
(1995-1999) (budget (cid:129) ECU 126 million, equal to approx. LIT 244 billion) and how much each of them
has been granted?

Has it checked how the amounts have actually been used and whether the proposed measures have been
successfully implemented?

20.6.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 170 E/119

Answer given by Ms Reding on behalf of the Commission

(9 November 1999)

A list (by project) of organisations that have benefited from a Youth for Europe grant since 1995 has been
sent directly to the Honourable Member and Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat. The broad decentralisation of the
administration, which is one of the strong points of the programme, gives rise to a delay between the
selection of projects, their implementation, their funding and the transmission of the full details to the
Commission. So while the list is not exhaustive, it is representative of all the projects which have enabled
more than 200 000 young people to benefit from the programme since 1995.

The beneficiary projects are selected either centrally or decentrally, depending on their nature, by expert
in particular, whether the applications are in keeping with the objectives of the
juries that consider,
programme, including the budgetary balance. The National Agencies play a pivotal role in the various
stages of the process (selection, analysis of the reports, contacts with beneficiaries, etc.) and have their own
monitoring system. In addition, the Youth for Europe programme is subject to the Commission(cid:146)s own
compulsory monitoring procedures. Each project selected is thus subject to an agreement laying down the
level. Under the terms of this
rules for using the Community grant, at central
agreement, the beneficiary promises to submit a final report describing the various actions undertaken as
part of the project and accompanied by a final set of accounts for all expenditure relating to the project to
the National Agency or the Commission within two months of the end of the contractual period. An
advance of 80 % is paid within 30 days of receipt of the duly signed agreement. The remaining balance is
paid within 60 days of the National Agency(cid:146)s or the Commission(cid:146)s receipt and approval of the final report.
The National Agency and the Commission reserve the right to refuse payment of any balance due if this
report is not submitted on time or is judged to be incomplete. If, once the report has been accepted, the
final balance due is less than the amount already paid, the beneficiary must reimburse the excess when
asked to do so.

level and at decentral

In terms of monitoring and control, the agreement states that the beneficiary must provide the National
Agency or the Commission with all necessary information on the implementation of the projects referred
to therein and must take all necessary action to allow the National Agency, the Commission or the Court
of Auditors to conduct monitoring,
inspection and auditing visits (e.g. provision of files, accounting
documents). These checks and audits can be conducted in situ and consist of an examination of the
accounts and supporting documents relating to the various project partners party to the agreements. For
this reason, supporting documents must be kept for five years after receipt of the project payment and the
end of the project period.

The National Agencies are also party to an agreement with the Commission with regard to the funds they
manage at national level. This agreement provides for the same monitoring and control measures as the
agreements with beneficiaries. Under this agreement, the National Agency agrees to account to the
Commission for the use of the Community funds. To this end, it must submit intermediate and final
accounts and statistics to the Commission for each action.

Apart from the checks conducted by each National Agency for the decentralised projects, the financial and
budgetary departments of the Commission or the Court of Auditors, if they so request, may conduct
checks on the basis of representative samples. Monitoring visits can also be made to the National Agencies.
Finally, external assessors evaluate the implementation of the programme for the Commission. An interim
evaluation report for the programme was published on 6 February 1998 (1), and an invitation to tender for
the final evaluation is under way.

As part of the new Youth programme (cid:129) currently under negotiation (cid:129) the Commission plans to put in
place a new and improved management and evaluation system based largely on the recommendations of
the vade-mecum on grants, which should allow projects to be monitored in real time, at decentralised level
as well. The enhanced programme is supported by a new IT system which will allow the various actions in
the programmes to be brought together on the basis of the experience gained since the Youth for Europe
programme began. This will constitute a further step towards improving the efficient administration and
monitoring of the use of Community funds.

(1) COM(98) 52 final.