WRITTEN QUESTION E-2544/99 by Samuli Pohjamo (ELDR) and Mikko Pesälä (ELDR) to the Commission. Implementation of TACIS projects in disarray.
Date: 2000-01-04
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Central and Eastern European countries, EU programme, cross-border cooperation, economic cooperation

3.10.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 280 E/71

(2000/C 280 E/070)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2544/99

by Samuli Pohjamo (ELDR) and Mikko Pes(cid:228)l(cid:228) (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Implementation of TACIS projects in disarray

(4 January 2000)

The TACIS projects, launched with great expectations, have not necessarily been implemented as hoped,
partly as a result of the EU(cid:146)s unwieldy bureaucracy. It is now proposed as an option that the EU should not
grant any further TACIS funds to its neighbouring regions until
the old programmes have been
implemented. The implementation of the programmes is hampered by the fact that the opportunity to
make direct investments is disproportionately small. Under the current regulation only 10 % of the funds
allocated may be used for investment. Partly for this reason, many of the TACIS programmes already
approved are still on ice. If the threat to halt the allocation of new resources was carried out, this would
detract from the TACIS CBS programmes, which seek inter alia to improve border security and in
particular eliminate development problems arising from the remote situation of border areas.

The most serious shortcoming of the CBS programmes is felt to be their separateness from the Interreg
programme, which also seeks to alleviate the problems caused by border location and to increase cross-
border cooperation. The TACIS funds, unlike the Interreg funds, are intended for the use of our Russian
partners. However, the majority of the euros spent under TACIS have been channelled by Western
planning and consultation agencies into their own pockets. Within the framework of TACIS more money
should be spent on direct investment rather than on consultations.

1. What measures does the Commission propose to take to ensure that TACIS projects can continue
uninterrupted and operate as smoothly as possible?

2. What measures has the Commission taken / is the Commission still taking to ensure the compat-
ibility and coordination of the TACIS and Interreg programmes, which was already proposed at an earlier
stage?

How does the Commission propose to improve the making of direct

3.
excessive consultations?

investments and reduce

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(1 February 2000)

The Commission would first of all assure the Honourable Members that it has no plans to suspend current
TACIS projects or stop funding of new projects. This applies equally to the cross-border co-operation
programme. On the contrary, the new Regulation (1), which has just entered into force, underlines the
priority given by the Commission to the TACIS programme. The investment ceiling of 10 % in the old
Council Regulation (Euratom, EC) No 1279/96 of 25 June 1996 (2) has not had a negative impact on the
implementation of the programmes. It is also important to recall that the Interreg and the cross-border co-
operation programmes have different objectives and legal bases. This has a bearing on the co-ordination
between the two programmes.

The answers to the three questions are:

1. There is no question of suspending the co-operation as a whole. Instead, the new Regulation marks a
new start for the important co-operation between the Community and the partner states in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia. The new Regulation strongly emphasises regional and cross-border co-
operation, with particular attention to enlargement. Measures are also foreseen to increase efficiency,
by concentrating on fewer areas of activities and selecting fewer but larger actions.

2. Co-ordination between Interreg and TACIS is already taking place and will continue at the project
level, both through the design of projects and by giving high priority to those projects which are
supported by matching funds of the relevant programmes. This has proved successful in the context of
the support for the Finnish/Russian border crossing points. Moreover synergy between the two
programmes will be improved through increased co-ordination at the programming level,
in the
definition of objectives and areas of co-operation.

C 280 E/72

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.10.2000

3. The main aim of the programme as set out in the new Regulation remains know-how transfer.
However, up to 20 % of the budget may now be used for investment promotion subject to certain
conditions. The Commission believes that this increased ceiling creates significant scope for more
investment prospects.

(1) OJ L 12, 18.1.2000.
(2) OJ L 165, 4.7.1996.

(2000/C 280 E/071)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2545/99

by Maurizio Turco (TDI) and Marco Cappato (TDI) to the Commission

Subject: Five-year EU action plan to combat drugs: information and evaluation

(4 January 2000)

The European Union allocates a considerable amount of funding to the fight against drugs, as is indicated
in the Communication from the Commission on a European Union action plan to combat drugs, which
gives the figures for 1998. Multiple budget lines are involved, covering more than a single pillar, ranging
from prevention to the funding of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, and
from the Phare and Tacis programmes to North-South cooperation and cooperation with the countries of
Latin America.

While the Commission Communication referred to above sketches an overall picture of EU activity in the
fight against drugs, it does not provide more specific information about the individual projects which have
been or are to be funded. Moreover, by contrast with the wishes expressed by the European Parliament
and with the undertakings given by the Commission itself in the 1995-1999 five-year plan, there is no full
and exhaustive evaluation of the preceding five-year action plan.

Will the Commission therefore provide the European Parliament with a brief but detailed picture giving
the following information in respect of each budget line involved in the fight against drugs, for previous
years and for the current financial year:

(cid:129) the projects which have been funded and the amount of funding received,

(cid:129) the recipients and managers of the funds allocated,

(cid:129) the objectives that it was intended to achieve,

(cid:129) the means deployed to achieve the objectives,

(cid:129) the results actually obtained,

(cid:129) the checks and evaluations of individual projects or programmes carried out by the European Union.

Will the Commission also state when it will issue an overall analysis evaluating the projects undertaken as
part of the 1995-1999 five-year action plan.

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(16 February 2000)

The Commission agrees that evaluation should play an important role in all activities in the field of drugs.
In its communication on a European Union action plan to combat drugs (2000-2004) (1) the Commission
proposed that external experts should evaluate Community activities during this period and that the
Commission should conduct a mid-term review of the action plan which would be presented to the
Council and the Parliament.

However, the action plan acknowledged that efforts at the Community level in the period 1995-1999 in
the field of evaluation had been insufficient. The Commission is not therefore able to respond fully to the
question. Nevertheless, the main programmes to combat drugs have either already been evaluated or are in
the process of being evaluated. The Commission sent to the Parliament on 14 October 1999, an interim
report on the implementation of the programmes of Community action on the prevention of cancer, AIDS
and certain other communicable diseases, and drug dependence within the framework for action in the