WRITTEN QUESTION No. 475/98 by Richard HOWITT to the Commission. Reproductive health
C 304/114 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 2. 10. 98 (98/C 304/170) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0475/98 by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission (27 February 1998) Subject: Reproductive health When is the work currently being conducted by DGIB with a view to the drawing up of a policy on reproductive health, including combating HIV, likely to be completed and published? Is the Commission committed to ensuring there is a single Commission-wide policy ensuring that reproductive health is made a priority in all development programmes supported by DG I, DG IA, DGIB, DGVIII and ECHO? Will the European Parliament be consulted about this? Answer given by Mr Marin on behalf of the Commission (23 March 1998) A new Commission communication is planned for 1998 that will outline the Commissionís policies and strategies for development cooperation relating to support for population and reproductive health activities, in view of next yearís fifth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations International conference on population development (ICPD) programme of action. The communication will draw upon existing policies and programmes in health, population, family planning, maternal health, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), gender integration and sexual exploitation. The Commission intends to consult fully with the Parliament and Member States on the content of this communication. (98/C 304/171) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0480/98 by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission (27 February 1998) Subject: Respect for local and regional diversity within structural fund programmes Would the Commission accept the criticism that the SPDs agreed with the United Kingdom in the period 1994-97 were too often identical for different regions, with the name of the region simply átippex-ed outí and retyped in different regionís SPDs as submitted by the then UK government? What measures has the Commission taken and will it take to promote diversity based on assessment of need by local and regional authorities and social partners within the regions affected? What role in this respect does the production of guidelines, as agreed at the informal Council in Ireland on November 1996, play? Is there a case for ending the process of producing guidelines altogether? Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (31 March 1998) The Commission does not accept the criticism that the single programming documents (SPDs) agreed with the United Kingdom for the period 1994-1999 were identical for different regions. The SPDs for objective 1, 2 and 5b regions were negotiated between the Commission and the regional partnerships on the basis of individual regional plans. Inevitably, similar problems have given rise to similar responses but the detail of each programme differs significantly from region to region. For the current objective 2 period 1997-1999, each regional partnership presented radically different plans based on its own perception of local needs and potential, and the SPDs which resulted from negotiation on the basis of these plans are significantly different from the 1994-1996 documents. The Commission therefore considers the SPDs in force from 1994 onwards to be directly relevant to each of the individual regions concerned, an opinion shared by the Parliament which, during its discussion of regional policy in the United Kingdom last year, recognised that the SPDs were in general the only strategic documents in existence in the United Kingdom at the regional level