WRITTEN QUESTION E-2343/00 by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Commission. Cuban membership of the ACP Group.
Date: 2000-07-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: ACP countries, ACP-EU Convention, Cuba

8.5.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 136 E/23

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2340/00 and E-2341/00
given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(7 September 2000)

The PHARE business support programme (BSP) was designed to strengthen the capacity of sectoral and
horizontal business representative organisations in the ten Central and Eastern European Candidate
countries to assist enterprises in these countries to prepare for accession, not least regarding their
compliance with the internal market (cid:145)acquis(cid:146).

Two calls for proposals were thus published under the BSP in June 1999 with the aim of co-financing two-
year projects, carried out in partnership and twinning between Community and Central and Eastern
European Countries (CEEC) organisations. The first call (cid:145)Strengthening of business support organisations in
the CEEC(cid:146) has a total amount of € 14 million for projects between € 0,5 million and € 2 million. The
second call (cid:145)Strengthening the activities of business support organisations in helping the CEEC companies
adjust to the Community acquis(cid:146) has a total amount of € 8 million for projects between € 0,5 million and
€ 1 million. By the deadline for both calls on 15 October 1999 the Commission had received 98 proposals
of which 55 were for call No 1 and 43 for call No 2.

The evaluation of eligible projects was carried out against scores for a set of detailed criteria established on
the basis of the selection criteria published in the call for proposals. The project in question obtained 802
points out of a maximum of 1 500 and projects scoring less than 965 points could not be considered for
to the Honourable Member and to
financing. The Commission will
Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat.

forward these criteria direct

The result of the evaluation was that 17 projects could be selected for financing (nine projects under call
No 1 and eight projects under call No 2) of which seven organisations succeeded in obtaining support for
projects in the areas of both calls for proposals. The activities or sectors covered by the projects are:
chamber of commerce; small and medium sized craft enterprises;
the furniture and wood industry;
producers co-operatives, social enterprises and participative enterprises; the chemical industry; the food
and drink industry;
the business machine and
information technology industry and animal production.

the textile and clothing industry;

the steel

industry;

(2001/C 136 E/025)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2343/00

by Isidoro SÆnchez Garc(cid:237)a (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Cuban membership of the ACP Group

(13 July 2000)

What view does the Commission take of the application submitted by the Cuban Government to the ACP
(Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) group requesting membership of that group outside the partnership
agreement between the ACP and the European Union? What social and political consequences may be
expected if such an application were to be accepted?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(25 September 2000)

The Commission has not been informed up to now about any such application. In the event of that kind
of request being submitted, the decision will be for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to
respond to the Cuban Government. Nevertheless, the Commission would like to point out that member-
ship of the ACP group does not necessarily imply being automatically beneficiary of the Cotonou
Agreement. As there is no precedent for a country being part of the ACP group without being part of
the agreement of the ACP countries with the Community, the social and political consequences of such
status can at this stage not be assessed.