WRITTEN QUESTION E-0607/01 by Juan Naranjo Escobar (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Community budget contribution to religious faiths in the EU.
Date: 2001-03-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, national financing, religious group

13.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 318 E/87

Progress made in this area is checked regularly by the High Level Group on the Employment and Social
Dimension of the Information Society (ESDIS) (4), which is managed by DG Employment and Social Affairs.

The initiative (cid:145)eLearning: Designing tomorrow(cid:146)s education(cid:146) (5) was adopted by the Commission on 24 May
2000. Following on from the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council, the Commission presented the
principles, objectives and lines of action of eLearning. This initiative was welcomed by the Education
Ministers and by the Feira European Council in June 2000. The eLearning initiative is in line with the
overall eEurope Action Plan and with the Report on the concrete future objectives of education systems (6).

On 28 March 2001 the Commission adopted an eLearning Action Plan for the period 2001-2004. Its aim
is to present the arrangements and methods for implementing the eLearning initiative. It seeks to mobilise
those involved in education and training, together with the relevant social, industrial and economic actors,
to make lifelong learning (7) the driving force behind a society based on solidarity in a competitive
economy. To this end, all Community instruments and programmes will play a part in implementing the
It will help to promote the employability and adaptability objectives of the
eLearning Action Plan.
European Employment Strategy, to tackle the skills gap related to the new technologies and to ensure
greater social inclusion.

(1) This coordinated strategy is based on four pillars: employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal

opportunities. (http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/ees_en.htm).

(2) Council Decision 2001/63/EC of 19 January 2001 on Guidelines for Member States(cid:146) employment policies for the

year 2001 (OJ L 22, 24.1.2001).

(3) COM(2000) 330 final.
(4) http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-dial/info_soc/esdis/index.htm.
(5) COM(2000) 318 final (http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/elearning).
(6) COM(2001) 59 final.
(7) The current public debate concerning the (cid:145)Memorandum on Lifelong Learning(cid:146) SEC(2000) 1832 (http://

europa.eu.int/comm/education/life/index.html) will pave the way for an action plan by the end of 2001.

(2001/C 318 E/089)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0607/01

by Juan Naranjo Escobar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 March 2001)

Subject: Community budget contribution to religious faiths in the EU

Each Member State(cid:146)s budget includes provision for contributions from public funds to assist the various
religious faiths present in that state or to support various charitable works.

This is in response to the wishes of taxpayers who want to see a certain amount of their taxes allocated to
the funding either of the religious faith of which they are members or to a charitable work in the country
or region to which they belong.

Has the Commission considered, as part of its social assistance measures, providing funds from the EU
budget to support the religious faiths to which Community citizens belong?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(30 April 2001)

The ways in which the Member States assist religious denominations are quite varied. Although in
a minority of cases the fiscal system is directly used for this purpose, the more usual arrangement is that
the Member States consider voluntary donations as tax-deductible, and give direct assistance for specified
activities and charitable work. The religious denominations and their agents may carry out such work and
in this way the religious denominations may receive a benefit. Community funds are also disbursed for
many activities which religious denominations or their agents may carry out. The Commission sees no
need to complement this with other budget support, neither is there any such request from the religious
denominations themselves.