WRITTEN QUESTION E-3899/02 by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission. 2004 — European Year of Education through Sport.
Date: 2003-01-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European cultural event, dissemination of information, education, education policy, promotion of the European idea, sport

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The Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) is one of a number of organisations, including the
3.
Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) and the Trans-Atlantic Environmental Dialogue (TAED), which
were set up in response to a public declaration of the Commission and the American Government at their
Summit meeting in Madrid in 1995. This set out the New Transatlantic Agenda, which covers co-
operation on issues such as trade and investment. Among its objectives is to ‘build bridges across the
Atlantic’, in particular by encouraging private actors and policy makers in the Union and the United States
to establish concrete links.

These bodies make public recommendations to the Commission and the American Government. They are
invited on a rotating basis to make a presentation to leaders at Union-United States Summits. The
Commission considers the input from all of these dialogues to be of equal importance and very valuable
input in its efforts to develop and strengthen a balanced and sound transatlantic relationship.

Participation in these bodies is open to stakeholders in the relevant areas.

4.
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001
regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents is applicable in its
entirety. The only exceptions permitted are those laid down in Article 4 of this Regulation.

5.
As regards its reply to the Ombudsman’s draft recommendation in case No 1128/2001/IJH, the
Commission would like to point out that this complaint only concerned a few briefing and discussion
papers drafted for internal use. The vast majority of the documents, to which the complainant had
requested access, either are accessible on the Internet or have been released by the Commission. The
approach of
the Commission (cid:1) which was endorsed by the Ombudsman in his final decision of
9 December 2002 to close the case (cid:1) is that disclosing internal reasoning and the alternatives that have
been considered would weaken its negotiating position as it would give negotiating partners an insight
into possible compromises the Commission would be willing to make at a later stage in the negotiation.

in fact, correspond to Article 255 of

6.
The policy of transparency applied by the Commission is in accord with the Charter of Fundamental
Rights, and in particular with Article 42 on the right of access to documents. This Article of the Charter
does,
the EC Treaty, as implemented by the aforementioned
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which applies in full to documents relating to the TABD. In addition, as
mentioned under the following point, the Commission practises an active policy of transparency in this
field, which goes beyond its obligations arising from the provisions of the EC Treaty.

7.
The recommendations of the TABD are all to be found on its website (http://www.tabd.com). They
are also made available, together with the Commission’s reactions to them, on the Commission’s Europa
site on the Internet. Honourable Members who follow Union-United States trade matters will be entirely
familiar with, and are also invited to participate in, the work of the TABD.

(2003/C 155 E/223)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3899/02

by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 January 2003)

Subject: 2004 (cid:1) European Year of Education through Sport

It is widely recognised that sport is an important social phenomenon in Europe and is a good educational
tool. In particular it helps to develop the social skills of young people, including team spirit, solidarity and
loyalty (cid:1) in short it increases collective discipline and promotes a group approach to life.

In this context the aim of the European Year of Education through Sport in 2004 is to help to enhance the
image of sport in European society by counteracting the risks of a sedentary lifestyle and social isolation
linked to the increasing use of new technologies. The initiative will make it possible to exploit more fully

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the values inherent in sport for improving education programmes, in particular extra-curricular education,
by means of a close partnership between educational and sports organisations.

The proposed budget is EUR 11,5 million (EUR 8 million for 2004 and EUR 3,5 million for 2003) which is
supposed to fund the following activities: the organisation of meetings, events and voluntary actions;
information and promotional campaigns; cooperation with the media; research and studies; the granting of
financial support to trans-national, national, regional and local initiatives, with the aim of promoting the
aims of the European Year of Education through Sport.

Measures on a Community scale may be subsidised up to a maximum of 80 %, whilst local, regional,
national or trans-national measures may be co-funded by the general budget of the European Communities
up to a maximum of 50 % of the total cost.

1.
Since each Member State has to appoint the bodies responsible for taking part in the European Year,
to which the candidates must send their projects, and since these in turn have to submit applications to
the Commission for the cofinancing of local, regional, national or trans-national measures, what is the
deadline for appointing these bodies and announcing who they are?

2. What are the deadlines set for the publication of notices inviting applications and the relevant
procedure and what means of dissemination will be used?

Since the decisions concerning financing and cofinancing are to be adopted by the Commission after
3.
consulting a group of experts, what is the composition of this group and how long will the whole
selection process take?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(18 February 2003)

The Honourable Member refers to the arrangements for implementing the European Parliament and
Council Decision establishing the European Year of Education through Sport 2004. This Decision was
adopted on 19 December 2002 (1).

Article 4 of the Decision provides that each Member State should designate one or more appropriate
bodies with responsibility for participating in the European Year and coordinating measures at national
level, using the selection procedure described in Article 7.

The Commission has put this matter on the agenda of the first meeting of the advisory committee which is
due to take place on 7 March 2003. The national bodies should be designated during the first half of 2003
in accordance with arrangements which still have to be set out in detail and will be referred to the
advisory committee.

The Commission has already published a contract notice (2) concerning an information and promotional
campaign for the European Year of Education through Sport 2004. Another call for tenders relating to the
selection of projects is planned before summer 2003.

Article 6 of the Commission’s initial proposal (3) provides for a group of experts to be called in. However,
the obligation to obtain the opinion of this group of experts was dispensed with during the legislative
procedure. Nevertheless, in line with the debates in Parliament, the Commission intends to set up a group
of experts in order to enable all partners from education and sport
to express their views. The
arrangements for setting up this group of experts will be drawn up in the next few months after receiving
the opinion of the advisory committee.

The Commission would also point out that under Article 7 of Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June
1999 laying down the procedures
implementing powers conferred on the
the exercise of
Commission (4), the European Parliament must be kept regularly informed by the Commission about
committee proceedings. To this end, it receives agendas for committee meetings, draft measures submitted
to the committees for the implementation of instruments adopted by the procedure provided for by

for

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Article 251 of the EC Treaty, and the results of voting and summary records of the meetings and lists of
the authorities and organisations to which the persons designated by the Member States to represent them
belong. The European Parliament is also kept informed whenever the Commission transmits to the Council
measures or proposals for measures to be taken

(1) Due to be published in the Official Journal.
(2) OJ 2002/S 242-192453, 13.12.2002.
(3) Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Year of Education

through Sport 2004 (cid:1) OJ C 25 E, 29.1.2002.

(4) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999.

(2003/C 155 E/224)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3912/02

by Dirk Sterckx (ELDR) to the Commission

(14 January 2003)

Subject: UEFA exclusive contracts and the right to information and press freedom

The exclusive contracts which UEFA has concluded with television companies are greatly restricting the
opportunities open to regional television companies which do not have such contracts, particularly as the
latter not only apply to matches themselves, but also prohibit the filming of footage of the area around
stadiums and the spectators.

Are not exclusive contracts with such far-reaching provisions at odds with the freedom to gather news?

Does the Commission take the view that the provisions of such contracts represent a breach of the right to
press freedom and/or the right to information?

If so, what measures does the Commission plan to take?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(7 February 2003)

The Commission is aware of the issue raised by the Honourable Member.

At this stage of development of Community law, it is up to the Member States to regulate the access to
news, taking into account the relevant Community law instruments on intellectual property (which in turn
take into account the fundamental right of freedom of expression as laid down by Article 11 of the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights (1)).

In the Work Program annexed to the Commission’s Fourth Application Report on the Directive ‘Television
without Frontiers’ (2), the Commission has announced its intention to reflect on the question of whether
there are grounds for introducing, in future, provisions on access to short extracts of events subject to
exclusive rights.

Bearing in mind the interests at stake (event organisers, rights holders, agencies, television broadcasting
bodies, the public) and taking into account the fact that some Member States have already adopted specific
provisions on the subject, this question will be adressed with a view to analysing whether the absence of
Community provisions creates obstacles to the internal market.

(1) Article 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights reads as follows:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to
receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

(2)

2. The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.
Fourth Report on the Application of Directive 89/552/EEC ‘Television without Frontiers’, COM(2002) 778 final,
http://europa.eu.int/comm/avpolicy/regul/twf/applica/comm2002_778final_en.pdf.