WRITTEN QUESTION P-1990/00 by Maria Sanders-ten Holte (ELDR) to the Commission. Cultural Villages of Europe.
Date: 2000-06-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European cultural event, rural settlement

3.4.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 103 E/41

(2001/C 103 E/043)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1971/00

by JosØ Ribeiro e Castro (UEN) to the Council

(21 June 2000)

Subject: IGC (cid:129) Portuguese Presidency document

The press has reported that on 16 May, at a Brussels meeting of the (cid:145)IGC negotiating group(cid:146), the
Portuguese Presidency submitted a document which:

(a) proposed establishing a new, binding European Union legal form, namely the legislative act;

(b) proposed various ways of calculating the allocation of seats per Member State within the European

Parliament.

What is this document, and what are its complete contents? What would this proposal (cid:145)legislative act(cid:146) be,
and how would it differ from the directives, regulations and other legal acts? What alternative models were
put forward in the document in question with regard to the make-up of the European Parliament to be
assessed and debated within the framework of the IGC?

Reply

(10 November 2000)

The Honourable Member will be aware that the Council plays no part in the work of the Intergovern-
mental Conference and is therefore unable to comment on it. The European Parliament, on the other hand,
has two observers who attend meetings of the IGC Preparatory Group. In addition, the IGC document to
which the Honourable Member refers, is available on the IGC Internet site (http://db.consilium.eu.int/cig/,
where all official Conference documents can be found) under the heading, dated 10 May 2000, of other
amendments to be made to the Treaties as regards the European Institutions.

(2001/C 103 E/044)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1990/00

by Maria Sanders-ten Holte (ELDR) to the Commission

(9 June 2000)

Subject: Cultural Villages of Europe

In 1985, on the initiative of Mrs Melina Mercouri, the Council decided to launch the (cid:145)European Capital of
the Year(cid:146) project. It saw the many cultural events that would take place in the European Cultural Capital
during its year as a way of raising European citizens(cid:146) awareness of the wealth of their cultural heritage, the
vital cultural creativity in Europe and the new opportunities that cultural cooperation can provide for
social integration, growth and employment. In 2000 the Commission is co-financing the project through
the Culture 2000 programme.

Following the example of Copenhagen as the 1996 Cultural Capital, a number of villages have taken the
initiative to expand the project and incorporate a network of villages throughout Europe, which are setting
up and carrying out cultural events with one another, with the aim of bringing the culture and cultural
diversity of villages in Europe to the attention of their citizens.

is the
As villages are in fact often the custodians of cultural assets and are close to the citizen,
1.
Commission prepared in the light of the above to take note of projects of this kind concerning villages in
Europe?

2. Might the Commission be prepared to take on part of the funding for an annually revolving project
for the (cid:145)Cultural Village of the Year(cid:146)?

C 103 E/42

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.4.2001

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(14 July 2000)

The Commission is aware of this initiative and was there when it was presented to Parliament. Although
the Commission acknowledges the important cultural role of European villages in the process of European
integration, it must inform the Honourable Member that the Community can support cultural projects
only under and in accordance with the criteria of existing programmes.

Thus, the choice of towns and cities for the (cid:145)European Capital of Culture(cid:146) up to the year 2004 was based
on a decision taken at intergovernmental level by the Ministers of Culture within the Council.

As regards the period 2005 to 2019, the procedure and the criteria for determining the European Capitals
of Culture have been set out in Decision 1419/1999/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of
25 May 1999 establishing a Community action for the European Capital of Culture event for the years
2005 to 2019 (1).

Regarding all other cultural projects, the cultural operators (in this case, the villages of Europe) may
present a project under and in accordance with the criteria provided for by the (cid:145)Culture 2000(cid:146) programme,
which is the single programming and financing instrument for cultural cooperation.

(1) OJ L 166, 1.7.1999.

(2001/C 103 E/045)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1993/00

by J(cid:252)rgen Zimmerling (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(21 June 2000)

Subject: e-commerce

What measures are planned to regulate the following problem areas involving the Internet?

What is the Commission(cid:146)s legal position regarding:

1. The treatment of Internet domain names from the point of view of trade mark and labelling law;

2. The violation of trade mark law by the establishment of hyperlinks;

3. Repeated cautions concerning violations of the law (in particular copyright violations) on the Internet;

4. The obligation to pay defence costs (for instance lawyers(cid:146) fees) made necessary by unjustified cautions;

5. The criteria to distinguish between private and commercial web sites;

6. The question whether the NATD (notice and take down) liability derogation developed by US courts

will have a place in plans to regulate this field?

Supplementary information regarding point 6:

(cid:129) Under the NADT procedure,

liability derogation is accorded to a person infringing the law who
removes from the web the contents or links which he has put on the Internet and which are illegal
immediately after notification,
law
violation.

i.e. at the latest following the notification of the (copyright)