European Commission: funding suspended
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 11:42:47 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: European Commission: funding suspended
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Daniel Pop <[email protected]>
European Commission: funding suspended
I received some interesting news about the European Commission, may be
some list members will be interested to know about them.
-----------------------
Dear friends,
As some of you might know, the European Commission decided to suspend
a number of budget lines, among which many budgetlines supporting
democracy and human rights projects. They have done this following a
decision of the European Court, which states that the European
Commission does not have a legal basis, on which to give out these
grants.
The European Youth Forum, on a conference I have attended last weekend
in Cardiff, urged all its member organizations to get into action
against such a decision by lobbying in the European Parliament and to
the national governments.
I am forwarding you an appeal from UNITED, European network against
rasism, fascism and xenophobia concerning this Commission decision
that could seriously put in danger thousands of projects of NGO's all
arround Europe.
Underneath you will also find two media releases on the subject, that
explain a little more. The first is from the International Federation
of Journalists. The second was issued by the Liaison Committee of
Development NGOs in the EU.
Yours,
Zlatko Vidackovic
Member of JEF-Europe Executive Bureau
--------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 15:54:11 +0200 (CEST)
From: [email protected]
European Commission suspends 500MECU funding
Dear friends,
We have received word from several different sources about the
decision of the European Commission to suspend a number of budget
lines, among which the budgetlines for racism and xenophobia and for
Human Rights.
The "hitlist" of affected budetlines that was printed in The Guardian
of 11 June included:
- NGO activities in developing countries
- Human Rights and support for democracy programmes
- Anti-racism and anti-xenophobia projects
- Financial co-operation with Turkey
- European Voluntary Service
- Export promotion to Japan
- Aid for Bosnia
- Landmines project
- Anti-racism and anti-xenophobia projects
- Support for disabled
- NGO programmes for pensioners and socially excluded
- Family support programme
- Support for regional and minority languages and cultures
- Health and safety at work
- Support for minority language radio and TV
- Support for co-operative movements
Urgent action is needed to make the governments of the European Union
Member States solve this problem, together with the Commission and the
European Parliament.
Kind regards,
Saskia Daru
***********************************************************
UNITED for Intercultural Action European network against nationalism,
racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees
PB 413
NL-1000 AK Amsterdam
phone +31-20-6834778, fax +31-20-6834582
e-mail [email protected]
website http://www.xs4all.nl/~united
**********************************************************
16 June: International Refugee Day 1000 refugee deaths as a result of
"Fortress Europe" Take action for more humane refugee policies!
**********************************************************
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Media Release
June 12th 1998
Threat to EU Social Actions in Defence of Human Rights, Democracy and
Cultural Freedom
The International Federation of Journalists and its regional
organization the European Federation of Journalists is deeply
concerned by the decision of the European Commission on June 10th to
suspend a number of budget lines.
This action, taken by the Commission in response to the European Court
ruling C-106/96 following the legal action by the UK Government
regarding certain areas of Commission spending, could have a
devastating impact on practical work in defence of human rights and
democracy.
"The work of numerous NGO organisations, including journalists' groups
who are heavily involved in important projects in defence of press
freedom, anti-racism, and solidarity with independent media striving
for freedom and democracy in many parts of the world, is now under
threat," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.
It is understood that up to 500 million ECU in budget lines for social
policy, development aid and human rights initiatives are currently
blocked.
Today on the eve of a meeting of independent media from Bosnia,
Serbia, Croatia and other territories of former Yugoslavia who benefit
from European Union support - including journalists and media striving
for freedom under fire in Kosovo - the IFJ is dismayed to find that
this support may be withdrawn. The IFJ believes strongly that the
Commission has over-reacted to the Court ruling.
"As a result the Commission may undermine and demoralise efforts to
bring peace, stability and sustainable development to crisis-hit
regions, both in Europe and around the world," said Aidan White.
The provision of budget lines for co-operation with NGOs covering
projects for instance on racism, the family, disability, the elderly,
and human rights in general, is a tiny proportion of European Union
spending. In fact, less than one percent.
The IFJ believes that the legal and technical questions raised by the
Court decision require a measured response which takes account of the
vast amount to work in progress. The credibility of the European
Union's commitment to social, cultural and democratic rights should
not be cut down by a hasty, panic-stricken response to a legal
judgement which in itself is unclear.
The IFJ calls upon the President of the European Union to intervene to
restore all froze budget lines; to carry out a thorough and considered
analysis of the legal judgement to be made in line with the political
and social obligations of the Member States under existing treaties;
and to enter into proper consultations with all NGOs regarding the
outcome of any review which may lead to the elimination, amendment or
change in policy and strategies covering European Union assistance.
The IFJ further calls for all budget lines currently suspended by the
Commission to be immediately released through an inter-institutional
agreement and that a review of existing programmes is carried out
without damaging the fabric of European Union commitment to human
rights and democracy.
Oliver Money-Kyrle
IFJ Prize 1998 Coordination
tel: (32 2) 223 22 65 fax: 219 29 76
e-mail: [email protected]
Web-site: http://www.ifj.org/issues/racism/prize.html
------------------
Brussels, 10 June 1998
Judgement of Court of Justice requires review of legal basis for
European Union spending
The European Commission has decided to take action after a recent
ruling of the Court of Justice (C-106/96 of 12 May 1998) that
clarified the legal requirements for the execution of the European
Union budget. The Commission has launched a review of a number of
budget lines without a legal basis and decided to suspend their
execution temporarily. During the review, new commitments will be
suspended but the payments of monies already committed will be made as
usual. Many of the budget lines concerned will be unblocked once the
Commission is satisfied that they meet the criteria of the Court's
ruling. The Commission will draw final conclusions of the review and
communicate them to the budgetary authority by the end of July 1998.
The Court of Justice ruling was the result of an action lodged by the
United Kingdom, supported by Denmark, Germany and the Council, against
the Commission's funding, in 1995, demonstration projects combating
poverty and social exclusion. The Commission was supported by the
European Parliament in its defence.
In its ruling the Court underlines that only non-significant EU
actions can be executed without the prior adoption of a legal base.
Whilst the Court did not provide a definition of what
"non-significant" means, it insisted that a small amount of money or a
short duration are not, per se, sufficient criteria.
The review launched by the Commission therefore concerns, on the one
hand, small budget lines without a legal base, and, on the other hand,
budget lines for which the legal base has been proposed but not yet
adopted.
Furthermore, with regard to the EU budget for 1999 and the new
Interinstitutional Agreement, the Commission is in contact with the
budgetary authority. In this context, the Commission continues to look
forward to reaching an agreement between the institutions, which will
define what "non-significant" means.
___________________________________________
Sam BIESEMANS
Press and European Parliament Relations
Liaison Committee of Development NGOs to the EU
square Ambiorix 10
1000 Brussels
tel.: 0032 -2 - 7438785 (direct)
tel. sec.: 0032 - 2 - 7438760
GSM (Mobile phone): 0032 (0) 477268893
fax. :0032-2-7321934
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web site: http:/www.oneworld.org/liaison
_____________________________________________
Yours,
Daniel Pop
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