WRITTEN QUESTION E-1971/00 by José Ribeiro e Castro (UEN) to the Council. IGC ‐ Portuguese Presidency document.
Date: 2000-06-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, EU act, European Parliament, allocation of seats, intergovernmental conference (EU)

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)?