WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3982/97 by Kenneth COATES to the Commission. Passenger rail services between Britain and continental Europe
C 223/40 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 17. 7. 98 More detailed proposals, including financial information, on the basis of which further decisions will be made by the monitoring committee, are awaited. The Commission will examine the detailed proposals when they are submitted. The ministry of Education has proposed to use universities and technological institutes as intermediary agencies, since, in the existing system, school units cannot be directly involved in implementation. At the last meeting of the monitoring committee, the higher education institutions expressed a reserve on this. The ministry is examining the implementation structures and mechanisms, which will constitute part of the awaited detailed proposal. The absorption rate of the operational programme Education and Initial Trainingí amounts to about 27%, whereas that of sub-programmes 1 (secondary education), 2 (initial training), 3 (higher education) and 4 (modernisation of the administration of the educational system and technical assistance) are in the region of 17%, 42%, 15. 5% and 13% respectively (payments of the Member State as percentages of the overall budget of the programme). Apart from the actions addressed directly to universities and technological institutes, tertiary education institutions participate also in the implementation of other actions for secondary education, as for example áinformation technologiesí and áeducation of students of special categories (minorities, immigrants, repa- triated)í. In the above examples, universities are used both as intermediary and implementing agencies. They will be paid on the basis of incurred expenditure and relevant justifying documents and not on percentages of the budgets of the actions or lump sum allowances. (98/C 223/43) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3982/97 by Kenneth Coates (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (14 January 1998) Subject: Passenger rail services between Britain and continental Europe How much European Union funding has helped to pay for the development of the Channel Tunnel and the associated rail links? How much investment was made by the European Coal and Steel Community? (98/C 223/44) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3983/97 by Kenneth Coates (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (14 January 1998) Subject: Passenger rail services between Britain and continental Europe What, if any, European funding has gone to support Eurostar rail services? What is the Commissionís view of the long delay in introducing, and recent reports of the possible abandonment of, direct Eurostar services between the East Midlands and the North of England and continental Europe? Joint answer to Written Questions E-3982/97 and E-3983/97 given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (23 February 1998) The Community has provided support for the development of the Channel Tunnel and its associated rail links in the United Kingdom and France through numerous financial instruments since 1982. In 1983, the Community provided 0. 4 MECU towards the costs of the preliminary evaluation studies of the Eurotunnel project. In 1987, the European investment bank (EIB) advanced a loan to Eurotunnel of 1. 400 MECU towards the costs of the project itself. It has since lent a further 254. 4 MECU