WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2731/98 by Jens-Peter BONDE to the Commission. EU aid for full-fat school milk
28. 6. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 182/17 The report devotes considerable attention to the last issue the Honourable Member raises, concerning the introduction of new own resources, and it stresses that, although there are various possibilities, at present it is unlikely that a new own resource will emerge. Nevertheless, if there was the political will to do so, a modulated value added tax resource, as advocated by the 1994 Parliament Langes report, offers the most promising prospect. (1) available on the World Wide Web in the following site: http://europea. eu. int/comm/dg19/index_j. htm, where J=EN for English, J=FR for French, J=D for German etc. (1999/C 182/021) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2662/98 by Jan Andersson (PSE) to the Commission (1 September 1998) Subject: Structural aid to cities Aid to particularly deprived areas of major cities is a completely new feature of European structural policy. The application of the rules on aid to urban areas contained in the Commission’s proposal for a programme for cities in the European Union is, therefore, a somewhat inappropriate instrument in countries with a small, sparsely distributed population since the rules are geared to regions and not parts of cities. The Commission should, therefore, exempt certain areas with low population density from the nominal criterion of 100 000 inhabitants. What action does the Council intend to take on this matter to avoid the somewhat inconsistent treatment ensuing from the present proposal? Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (8 October 1998) During the present programming period, the Community has intervened in the major cities, notably as part of the programmes in Objective 1 (least developed) regions and Objective 2 (industrial) regions. In addition, special programmes have been run in deprived city areas under the Community initiative URBAN. For the future, the Commission proposes to build on this experience by extending mainstream assistance to deprived urban areas under the new objective 2. The urban areas eligible under the new Objective 2 would be selected on the basis of a proposal from the Member States in accordance with criteria in the proposed new general regulation (1). The proposed regulation imposes no minimum size of area, such as the threshold of 100 000 inhabitants mentioned by the Honourable Member. Rather, it is important that the eligible areas are of sufficient scale to allow regional development programmes to be put in place, which is why the Commission’s proposal refers to areas that are ‘sufficiently substantial. ’ (1) COM(98) 131 final. (1999/C 182/022) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2731/98 by Jens-Peter Bonde (I-EDN) to the Commission (1 September 1998) Subject: EU aid for full-fat school milk In its answer to my question E-2246/96 (1) of 13 September 1996 the Commission refused to give the same aid to all types of milk