WRITTEN QUESTION P-3068/03 by Hugues Martin (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Funding of bodies which play host to an Info-Point Europe.
Date: 2003-10-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, administrative expenditure, common agricultural policy, dissemination of EU information, information centre, information network, information policy, public awareness campaign

C 78 E/448

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

(2004/C 78 E/0470)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3007/03

by Giacomo Santini (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 October 2003)

Subject: Role of the European Rural Carrefours in CAP information campaigns

The ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of
Council Regulation (EC) No 814/2000 on information measures relating to the common agricultural
policy’ (1) expresses satisfaction at the results achieved by the information campaigns conducted in 2000,
2001 and 2002, but also stresses that their impact on the public and their cost-effectiveness could be
improved. The Commission states, on the basis of data obtained from ‘flash’ Eurobarometers, that the
general public’s lack of knowledge about the CAP, WTO, food safety and other issues linked to agricultural
policy confirms more than ever the need to step up information measures and improve their impact.

For some years now the European network of Rural Carrefours has been playing a role in informing the
public about the common agricultural policy, thanks to the existence of about 140 European rural
information and promotion centres supplied with publications, newsletters and websites and staffed by
people competent to deal with CAP issues. The European network of Rural Carrefours can make a
worthwhile contribution to achieving the objectives of Regulation (EC) No 814/2000 (2), as regards
improving both the impact on the general public and cost-effectiveness. In order to achieve this result, the
Commission’s Agriculture DG should ensure structured involvement of the ‘Carrefours’, in the interests of
running information campaigns more efficiently and making the information measures carried out by the
Commission more coherent.

One of the measures undertaken by the Commission was, precisely, to train those working in the Rural
Carrefours in a number of specific CAP-related subjects, under the auspices of the Agriculture DG, which
demonstrated the need for functional
links with these centres. The Rural Carrefour network has
accompanied Commission staff on information stands at agricultural fairs.

Can the Commission say:

1. whether it intends to broaden its collaboration with the European network of Rural Carrefours in

order to carry out activities relating to measures taken on the Commission’s initiative;

2. what role the European network of Rural Carrefours will play in the measures taken on the

Commission’s initiative to implement the aforementioned Regulation (EC) No 814/2000?

(1) COM(2003) 235 final.
(2) OJ L 100, 20.4.2000, p. 7.

(2004/C 78 E/0471)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3068/03

by Hugues Martin (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 October 2003)

Subject: Funding of bodies which play host to an Info-Point Europe

According to my sources, following the entry into force, on 1 January 2003, of the new Financial
Regulation applicable to all the European institutions (Council Regulation (EC) No 1605/2002 of 25 June
2002 (1)) and its implementing procedures, the operating subsidies hitherto granted to bodies which play
host to an Info-Point Europe will henceforth be awarded on the basis of a new procedure. Instead of
receiving automatic funding, these information centres will be required to take part in an invitation-to-
tender procedure, failing which they will not be eligible for subsidies.

In addition to the operating subsidies, the bodies in question also received logistical support, such as
supplies of publications, access to the ‘relays and networks Intranet’, back-up from the relays and networks
helpdesk, in the form of documentary and technical assistance, from the meeting of relay heads, etc. It has
been decided that bodies which submit an appropriate request will continue to receive this logistical
support, on a temporary basis, in 2004.

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/449

This new procedure, which is intended to increase transparency in connection with the award of funding,
raises three questions to which the European Commission alluded without providing a detailed answer:

(cid:1) What criteria will be used to select the bodies which respond to the invitations to tender?

(cid:1) Will the logistical support measures continue after 2004?

(cid:1) In more general terms, the European Commission is now considering new forms of cooperation
which will ensure that information is readily available to the public locally, whilst complying with the
new rules laid down in the above-mentioned Financial Regulation. Can the Commission be more
precise on this point?

(1) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.

(2004/C 78 E/0472)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3112/03

by Giacomo Santini (PPE-DE), Elena Paciotti (PSE),
Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR), Giovanni Pittella (PSE),
Generoso Andria (PPE-DE), Enrico Ferri (PPE-DE), Carlo Fatuzzo (PPE-DE),
Gianfranco Dell’Alba (NI), Roberta Angelilli (UEN), Stefano Zappalà (PPE-DE),
Paolo Pastorelli (PPE-DE), Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR), Mauro Nobilia (UEN),
Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN), Michl Ebner (PPE-DE), Roberto Bigliardo (UEN),
Catherine Guy-Quint (PSE), Adriana Poli Bortone (UEN), Fiorella Ghilardotti (PSE),
Monica Frassoni (Verts/ALE), Franz Turchi (UEN), Massimo Carraro (PSE),
Guido Bodrato (PPE-DE), Francesco Musotto (PPE-DE), Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE),
Vitaliano Gemelli (PPE-DE) and Giovanni Fava (PSE) to the Commission

(22 October 2003)

Subject: EU information policy (cid:1) legal basis for the European ‘Carrefours ruraux’ and ‘Info-Points Europe’

(cid:1) urgent need for operational subsidy for 2004

Considering that:

(cid:1) Parliament has on numerous occasions stressed the importance for information and communication
policy of the networks created by the EU in the Member States, including the European ‘Carrefours
ruraux’ and the ‘Info-Points Europe’ (IPEs);

(cid:1) the position is expressed in communications (1)

flexibility and
immediate proximity to the representatives of civil society and the general public make them
invaluable’;

the networks’

‘experience,

that

(cid:1) the Commission has consistently displayed its commitment to this policy, as in President Prodi’s reply
of 27 September 2002 to a written question by a number of MEPs (E-2357/02 (2)), in which he stated
that ‘knowledge and understanding of the policies pursued and projects implemented by the Union are
gaining ground thanks to the information networks’.

A letter sent out by DG PRESS on 29 September 2003 informed the national organisations that host the
networks (cid:1) contrary to previous announcements (cid:1) that the renewal of the agreement for 2004 will no
longer carry the right to a subsidy; for the future, the Commission will consider new forms of cooperation,
in the light of the entry into force on 1 January 2003 of the Financial Regulations 1605/2002 (3) and
2342/2002 (4).

These new and unforeseen circumstances are such as to jeopardise the very survival of the networks, and
will, at all events, drastically reduce their capacity to engage in dialogue with the public, at a crucial
moment in the Union’s history which calls for such capacities to be developed further.