WRITTEN QUESTION E-3676/03 by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Petition by CNASTI (Portugal).
Date: 2003-12-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, European Development Fund, GATS, aid policy, child labour, child protection, common commercial policy, cooperation in the field of education, petition, private education

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/651

cultural property, resettlement, and forests. Only a small area of tropical forest has been lost as a result of
construction. To compensate for this, two large new national parks have been created in Cameroon. A
general plan has been prepared by the oil consortium to deal with possible oil spills. The plan is consistent
with international good practice.

An action plan for an intensified IEC (information, education and communication) campaign for local
people in the oilfield area has been implemented. Moreover the two governments are implementing
complementary programmes to strengthen the capacity of decentralised health services, which include
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related interventions. Qualified non-governmental organi-
sations (NGOs) have been contracted to assist communities along the pipeline route to prepare, submit,
and implement community projects in the health and education sector.

(2004/C 88 E/0668)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3676/03

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(9 December 2003)

Subject: Petition by CNASTI (Portugal)

At the World Education Forum held in Dakar, the international community agreed on the basic objectives
of ensuring that all the world’s children have access by 2015 to proper basic education free of charge and
eliminating gender inequality in access to education by 2005. During the same year, the same targets were
included in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

In the context of the campaign ‘From exploitation to education’ launched in Portugal by CNASTI (the
National Confederation for Action on Child Labour), as the national coordinating organisation for the
Global March Against Child Labour, a petition was submitted calling on the Commission, inter alia: to
ensure the provision of significantly increased funding for education in the field of
international
development and cooperation; to give its full support to the Fast Track Initiative for education and
expand the programme to all countries offering sound educational programmes; and to exclude education
explicitly from the sectors subject to liberalisation under the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in
Services) agreement within the WTO.

Can the Commission state what practical action it has already taken on the above demands?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(20 February 2004)

The objectives set in Dakar to achieve ‘Education for All’ (EFA) and the United Nations (UN) Millennium
Development Goals in the field of education form the basis of the Community’s development policy in the
field of education, as laid down in the Commission’s Communication of March 2002 (1) on ‘Education and
training in the context of the fight against poverty in developing countries’. The Communication also
stresses that Community funding for education, in particular primary education, should be increased.

Overall,
the Commission has programmed an estimated EUR 1,3 billion to education in developing
countries over five years. This figure does not represent the total effort as it does not take into account
some EUR 1,7 billion of financing that will go to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under the
9th European Development Fund (EDF) in the form of macro-economic support linked to social outcomes,
in particular education and health.

Since the Community’s development cooperation is based on a multi-annual programming, there is only
limited leeway for increasing funding for education until the next phase of programming. However, some
flexibility exists in ACP States through the recommitment exercise of unspent funds from previous EDFs
and through the 2004 Mid-Term Review. Of course, in line with the principle of ownership, recipient
countries ultimately decide upon the use of the funds allocated to them.

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Official Journal of the European Union

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8.4.2004

Against this background, the Commission welcomed the EFA Fast Track Initiative (FTI) as an opportunity
to increase support for primary education. The FTI will also be taken into account in the next phase of
programming of non-ACP States benefiting from the FTI. Moreover,
the Commission has played a
successful role in the second pillar on the FTI harmonisation of procedures with the other donors
particularly the EU Member States.

Regarding the specific issue of education services and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS),
the Community and its Member States have already taken some commitments within the GATS Uruguay
Round regarding privately funded education services. These commitments cover the possibility for foreign
providers to have access to a certain extent within the territory of the Union, but they have not impaired
in any way the right of the Member States to decide on the most appropriate organisation for the
provision of education services. This is in line with the provisions of the GATS which exclude from its
scope only those services which are provided under governmental authority, while allowing World Trade
Organisation (WTO) Members to retain the necessary flexibility and the right, in the areas falling within its
scope, to decide on the most appropriate structure for the organisation of each sector.

(1) COM(2002) 116 final.

(2004/C 88 E/0669)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3857/03

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(16 December 2003)

Subject: Development aid programme for India

A series of projects have been financed under the development aid programme for India, which amounted
to EUR 84 million in 2001. Would the Commission state the exact number of projects funded and
whether, in the case of each project, it checked the successful implementation of the costs involved and the
initiatives launched?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(2 February 2004)

The amount referred to by the Honourable Member consists of the total disbursements (EUR 84 million)
for India during the year 2001. In comparison, disbursements amounted to over EUR 103 million in 2002
and about the same amount in 2003.

In 2001, the portfolio of the main Community development co-operation activities under implementation
in India can be divided into three broad categories:

(cid:1) twelve agricultural and rural development projects implemented by government agencies;

(cid:1) two sector support programmes (one for education and one for health and family welfare);

(cid:1) four projects

implemented by large non-governmental organisations

(NGOs)

(three on rural

development and one on education).

(Special Report No 10/2003 on the ‘Effectiveness of

the Commission’s
In its most recent report
management of development assistance to India in targeting the poor and ensuring sustainable benefit’),
the Court of Auditors concluded that the Commission’s management has been successful in targeting the
poor and in addressing sustainability. Moreover, the Commission ensures that all its main projects (over
EUR 1million) are subject to an external monitoring at least once a year.