WRITTEN QUESTION E-3522/01 by Miquel Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE) to the Council. Greece.
Date: 2002-01-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Greece, cultural policy, ethnic group, linguistic group, rights of minorities

C 147 E/196

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.6.2002

(cid:1) secondly, also in future, not all substances included in Annex I will be authorised in all Member States.
It may be, for example, that a certain active substance poses a risk to groundwater in the Netherlands,
but it can be used safely in certain crops in Spain. A completion of the European review programme
will, therefore, not result in a totally equal inventory of substances used in all Member States and there
will also in future be some substances which are available to farmers in certain countries but not in
others.

The Commission expects that a major influence towards levelling the playing field will be the withdrawal
from the market of a significant number of active substances in July 2003. This aspect was also addressed
in the Commissions Report to Parliament and Council made in June 2001 (3).

(1) OJ L 230, 19.8.1991.
(2) OJ L 55, 29.2.2000.
(3) COM(2001) 444 final.

(2002/C 147 E/204)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3519/01

by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Gypsies and travellers (cid:1) Danger of social exclusion in the EU

Projects submitted to the Commission for grant funding, aimed at developing and improving the education
and training of gypsies and travellers (including fairground, circus and bargee groups) have been rejected
by the external evaluators.

Has the Commission sought to work with the promoters of these projects to help them prepare project
bids which would meet the criteria for financial support, thus allowing them to assist gypsies and
travellers? If not, why not?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(15 February 2002)

The Commission has funded a significant number of projects aimed at developing and improving the
education and training of gypsies and travellers (including fairground, circus and bargee groups).

As this target group is a priority within the Socrates Programme (Comenius) funding has been allocated
every year to projects promoted by organisations active in the field since the earliest years of the
programme. Significant numbers of projects have also been funded under both the Leonardo Da Vinci and
Youth Programmes.

Commission decisions to fund or reject project proposals are based on an independent, external evaluation
carried out by experts in the field. Where new project proposals are not selected for funding promoters
receive a letter outlining the reasons underlying the decision and are encouraged to seek advice from the
appropriate services of the Commission, before submitting a new application

(2002/C 147 E/205)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3522/01

by Miquel Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Greece

In Greece today, particularly in the North, there are a number of minorities. Some of them are ethnic
minorities (Turks, Macedonians), others are cultural and linguistic minorities (Vlachs, Arvanites and Roma).

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 147 E/197

Greece refuses to recognise their existence and denies them fundamental rights. For instance, they are
strictly prohibited from using their language in public and all historical inscriptions in these languages
have been obliterated or destroyed, as have monuments which might evoke the existence of these
minorities.

Furthermore, particularly in the case of ethnic Macedonian Greek citizens living abroad, Greece is doing
everything it can to prevent them from returning to their homeland, by revoking their citizenship, alleging
that they have committed anti-patriotic acts.

Is the Council aware of this situation?

As minority rights constitute one of the basic principles of the European Union today, how does the
Council envisage ensuring that Greece observes these rights?

Reply

(18 March 2002)

1.
The Council would remind the Honourable Member that as regards national and regional cultural
diversity, the Community is charged by the Treaty with contributing to the flowering of the cultures of the
Member States while respecting that diversity. Inter alia, the Community should, if necessary, support and
supplement the actions of the Member States in the areas referred to in Article 151(2) of the Treaty. At its
meeting on 5 November 2001,
the Council adopted a Resolution on the role of culture in the
development of the European Union and conducted an open debate, broadcast live to the public, on the
same subject.

2.
In that Resolution, the Council invited the Member States and the Commission, guided as they are by
respect for cultural diversity, the principle of subsidiarity and the determination to place culture at the
heart of European integration,

(cid:1) to develop cultural cooperation, European artistic creativity and cultural exchanges,

(cid:1) to cooperate in order to enable the Commission to update the assessment of the implementation of

Article 151(4) of the TEC and to report back to the Council.

It considered it important to start work, particularly on the basis of that assessment, on improving the
implementation of Article 151(2) and (4) of the TEC, and invited future Presidencies to draw up a work
programme and a timetable for that purpose

3.
At the end of the open debate on the importance of cultural diversity in the development of the
European Union, the Presidency concluded that there was a problem in matching the ambitions expressed
in the context of European cooperation in the field of culture and the resources made available for
implementing them, and that
there should be a review and reflection on new and more effective
instruments to be taken into account, possibly as part of the forthcoming review of the Treaties, the debate
on cultural identity and its values being no mere abstraction in the present context.

(2002/C 147 E/206)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3525/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(20 December 2001)

Subject: Seignorage revenue

Will the Commission estimate for each Member State the likely financial gain from the introduction of the
euro in seignorage revenue?

Will it further express this as a percentage of GDP in each case?