Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-104"
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"en.19991214.6.2-104"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, and I would firstly like to congratulate the President. The Commission met here in Strasbourg this afternoon and took the following decisions, which I shall now relay to you.
The Commission is reserving the management of 10% of the funds for itself with the aim of supporting the development of innovative, transnational projects. In its proposal, the Commission adopts the system of the constant commitology of a consultative committee and aims, with this, to replace the system of the Technical Assistance Offices that was in force during the 1998-1999 period. I am Mr President, at the Chamber’s service.
Firstly, it decided to give France a reasoned opinion with a deadline of five days in which to respond concerning the ban on British beef. The Commission took three further decisions on the application of Regulation No 4064/89 concerning merger control and on Regulation No 17/62 in application of Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty, imposing fines ranging from EUR 100 000 to EUR 3 000 for each company that has supplied incorrect information in response to requests for information that have been made to them.
The Commission also adopted a communication which defines the objectives and the principles of the Community medium-term audiovisual policy and which establishes a strategy for the so-called “digital” age. The communication contains several principles that in the Commission’s opinion should be applied to the regulation of the audiovisual sector and to its support mechanisms.
Closely linked to this communication, the Commission approved another one, together with a proposal for a decision by the European Parliament and the Council and a proposal for a decision by the Council relating to a programme of support for the European audiovisual industry, which is the MEDIA PLUS 2001-2005 programme. The communication contains a renewed vision and principles for intervention relating to the MEDIA PLUS programme. The first proposal concerns the formalisation of a training programme for professionals in the European audiovisual programme industry, the so-called “Media-Training” programme, which will be funded to the value of EUR 50 million for the period 2001 to 2005. The objective of the second proposal is to establish a programme of support for the development, distribution and promotion of unequivocally European audiovisual works. This is the MEDIA-PLUS programme – Development, Distribution and Promotion, which will be funded to the value of EUR 350 million for the period 2001 to 2005.
Following the Helsinki European Council meeting, on which a debate was held here this morning in plenary sitting, in the presence of the President of the Commission, the Commission approved a proposal for a decision by the Council which seeks the formal adoption of the guidelines on the Member States’ employment policies for 2000. In the framework of the internal reform of the Commission and following its statement of commitment to review the policy of outsourcing services, the Commission also approved a communication containing guidelines and the timetable for the implementation of this outsourcing policy.
Finally, Mr President, the Commission approved a proposal for a decision by the Council that aims to create a European Fund for Refugees. This is an instrument that aims to last for five years and which, thus, within a framework of multiannual programming, will enable us to give effective support to measures designed to improve conditions of reception, to promote integration and to make voluntary repatriation easier, as well as reintegration into refugees’ and displaced persons’ countries of origin. The fund will also contribute to the financing of emergency measures in the event of a massive influx of people who are in desperate need of international protection. A sum of EUR 36 million has been earmarked for the first year of this fund’s operation: EUR 26 million for the structural policy and EUR 10 million for emergency situations.
On this last point, I would like to add that the tradition of sums being earmarked for supporting refugees was started by the European Parliament in 1997 and annual decisions have been taken on it. Therefore, the time has come, following the Tampere European Council meeting to adopt a permanent legal base, which will give rise to a multiannual-type programme. The Tampere European Council asked the Commission to look into the creation of a financial fund aimed at resolving emergency situations. The Commission worked on the basis of the lessons it learned from its experience of Kosovo. This fund is therefore both a fund that has an emergency component but whose objective is, at the same time, to guarantee the financing of structural policy measures of support for the reception, integration and voluntary repatriation of refugees and asylum seekers.
There are, therefore, two interlocking budget lines, which nevertheless have different objectives. Firstly, the structural objective for the next five years is to allow the development by the Member States of policies for the reception and integration of refugees and asylum seekers, policies which must concentrate above all on priority actions of a very tangible nature. We see the Member States’ need to provide themselves with equipment and infrastructure for support for the reception, integration and voluntary repatriation of refugees and asylum seekers as a priority in this area.
The objective of the Commission’s proposal is that the sum of EUR 26 million should be distributed amongst the Member States based on a criterion, on a distribution scale that, above all, takes into account the number of requests for asylum that each Member State has received in the last three years and the number of refugees that have been in each Member States over the last three years. The first component will make up two-thirds of the fund’s national financing component and the second component will make up one third. In terms of the management of this fund, the Commission proposes that it should, above all, be co-financed by Member States with the specific aim of committing each State to implementing concrete actions that will lead to improving the situation of asylum-seekers and refugees in the States of our Union."@en1
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