WRITTEN QUESTION P-1343/02 by Pietro-Paolo Mennea (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Delays in payments.
Date: 2002-05-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, aid recipient, culture, deadline for payment, education, international payment, vocational training

26.9.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 229 E/207

(2002/C 229 E/238)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1343/02

by Pietro-Paolo Mennea (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(2 May 2002)

Subject: Delays in payments

A number of people responsible for cultural and educational programmes, as well as ordinary citizens,
have protested about delays in the payment of grants for projects in the field of culture and education and
occupational training.

Given that, in most cases, the people concerned do not have the necessary financial reserves to advance
the amounts required, the above situation is extremely harmful in both economic and cultural terms.

The Commission:

+ Is it aware of these problems?

+ Will it indicate what ‘time frames’ are applied with respect to such payments?

+ Does it intend to monitor the situation with a view to significantly improving and resolving this

situation?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(12 June 2002)

Each year, the programmes in the fields of culture, education and vocational training involve thousands of
transactions throughout the 30 participating countries. The Commission is aware of the difficulties in
ensuring that payments to beneficiaries are made quickly; these difficulties are partly due to a new
procedure being put in place which entails internalising payments previously made by external technical
assistance offices whose new contracts stipulate that they will no longer carry out tasks considered to be
the responsibility of the public authorities.

The agreements between the Commission and the beneficiaries under the programmes generally provide
that the Commission has a payment deadline of 60 days as from the date of its acceptance of a valid
request for payment (for the payment of an advance: the financing agreement signed by the beneficiary; for
any payment of an intermediate advance or the payment of a balance: the financial accounts and activity
report duly drawn up by the beneficiary and accepted by the Commission).

The Commission is endeavouring to reduce the payment times in the field concerned and has initiated
various measures to this end; subject to the means at its disposal, these include increasing staff numbers
handling payment transactions. However, the Commission keeps a close watch on the quality of financial
management and the controls to which incoming documents must be subjected. In this connection, it is
trying to simplify as far as possible the rules governing the management of the programmes with a view to
speeding up the operational procedures involved.

(2002/C 229 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1344/02

by Wolfgang Ilgenfritz (NI) to the Commission

(13 May 2002)

Subject: Incorporation of motor vehicles into the Italian motor vehicle register

Further to my Written Question of 12 April 2000 (E 1450/00 (1)) and to the answer given by Mr Bolkestein
on behalf of the Commission on 5 June 2000, can the Commission indicate whether, on the basis of the
ruling recently handed down in Case C-451/99, it has changed its views on the legal issues involved? How
will it proceed in this matter?

(1) OJ C 46 E, 13.2.2001, p. 193.