WRITTEN QUESTION E-0512/04 by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Daphne programme.
Date: 2004-02-24
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, Portugal, action programme, child protection, domestic violence, non-governmental organisation, position of women

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/609

Some economic measures introduced by the government such as price controls and foreign exchange
controls are having an effect on European companies trading with Venezuela. Negotiations between
European Embassies and the Commission on the one side and Venezuelan economic authorities on the
other have resulted in reducing the negative impact of these measures.

The Commission has not received any request for emergency aid and the Commission is not aware of any
specific part of the country encountering a serious shortage of food. However, the Commission will
continue to monitor the economic situation periodically and, should an emergency aid request be received,
examine it with care.

(2004/C 84 E/0684)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0512/04

by Sérgio Marques (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(24 February 2004)

Subject: Daphne programme

The purpose of the Daphne programme (cid:1) the 2000-2003 EU programme to combat violence against
children, young persons and women (cid:1) is to help provide a high level of both physical and psychological
health protection by protecting children, young persons and women against violence (including in the
form of sexual exploitation and abuse), by preventing violence and by providing aid to the victims of
violence, with a particular view to preventing further exposure to violence.

Public and private organisations and public institutions can all
in the programme. The
Commission cooperates with the relevant institutions and organisations and encourages transnational
cooperation between NGOs and local, regional and national authorities. Activities are intended to involve a
significant number of Member States.

take part

The programme represents the start of cooperation within Europe amongst NGOs and voluntary
organisations which, according to the Commission, play an essential role in combating the violence
perpetrated against children, young persons and women. The Commission also maintains that such
organisations frequently provide services which the public authorities are unable to offer or for which they
do not have the necessary skills.

In view of the above, would the Commission answer the following questions:

1. How many projects involving Portuguese NGOs or public entities were supported by the Community

during the 2000-2003 period?

2. What areas did those projects cover?

3. How much did the projects cost and what was the percentage of Community co-funding?

4. Do projects for which Community support is requested have to be partnerships between NGOs and

public entities, or may such projects involve only NGOs?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(24 March 2004)

During the period 2000-2003 the Daphne programme financed five projects where the coordinator was a
Portuguese entity (three study centres/institutes and two NGOs), to the tune of EUR 440 506.

A total of 61 organisations and public authorities participated as partners in 32 Daphne projects during
the same period.

C 84 E/610

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

As regards the areas covered by, and the funding for, those projects, the Honourable Member and
Parliament’s Secretariat will be receiving under separate cover full information on each of the five projects.

The only requirements regarding project partnerships are that (a) they must be set up by at least two
organisations (public or private) in two different Member States and (b) they must play an active part in
combating and preventing violence. The partnership may, therefore, consist either in a combination of
public authorities and ONGs or in only one of those categories.

(2004/C 84 E/0685)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0519/04

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(24 February 2004)

Subject: Agreement between the EC and the Swiss Confederation on the free movement of persons

Under Decision No 2/2003 of the EU-Swiss Joint Committee of 15 July 2003 amending Annex II (Social
Security) to the Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and
the Swiss Confederation, of the other part, on the free movement of persons (1), Portuguese citizens who
had emigrated to Switzerland but are now retired or receiving an invalidity pension and have returned to
Portugal no longer enjoy the option of requesting exemption from compulsory Swiss sickness insurance as
from 1 June 2003.

Around 6 000 Portuguese workers, who had not been informed of this change in advance, are now
receiving forms from Switzerland on which they must name the insurer of their choice, to which they
must immediately pay the corresponding contribution, even though they will not be prohibited from
access to health care in Portugal.

Can the Commission explain why Portuguese immigrants to Switzerland are being treated differently from
immigrants from other Member States under this decision?

(1) OJ L 187, 26.7.2003, p. 55.

Answer given by Mr Dimas on behalf of the Commission

(7 April 2004)

The Commission wishes to inform the Honourable Member that under the Agreement on Free Movement
of Persons with Switzerland (1), it does not depend on the nationality of a pensioner with a Swiss pension
but on the Member State where he resides whether he is insured against sickness in Switzerland or in the
Member State where he resides. In fact, under this Agreement, pensioners with a Swiss pension residing in
certain Member States may ask to be exempt from Swiss sickness insurance and be insured in the Member
State of residence, while such pensioners residing in other Member States must be insured in Switzerland.

The possibility to ask not to be insured against sickness in the country which pays a pension does not exist
under EU legislation (2): between Member States, a pensioner with a pension from one Member State who
resides in another Member State must be insured in the sickness scheme of the Member State which pays
him the pension. Annex II (coordination of social security) of the Agreement with Switzerland actually
provides that the same rule also applies in the relations between Switzerland and most Member States. But
as an exception to this rule, pensioners with a Swiss pension residing in Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal
or Finland could initially ask not to be insured in Switzerland.