WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3926/98 by Konstantinos HATZIDAKIS Publicity campaign for Greek Government education policy using European Union funds
C 341/20 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 29. 11. 1999 contribute actively in order to allow the negotiations with Cyprus to proceed as quickly as possible. It will do so notwithstanding persistent difficulties such as the fact that the Turkish-Cypriot community did not act up to now upon the explicit invitation to participate in the negotiations. The Honourable Member will not have failed to notice that these difficulties have led to various expressions of concern, including on behalf of certain Member States. The Commission fully shares the hope repeatedly expressed by the Union, that the accession negotiations will contribute positively to the search for a political solution to the Cyprus problem through the talks under the aegis of the United Nations which must continue with a view to creating a bi-community, bi- zonal federation. (1999/C 341/031) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3926/98 by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE) to the Commission (4 January 1999) Subject: Publicity campaign for Greek Government education policy using European Union funds The operational programme ‘Education and Initial Vocational Training’ (Epeaek) forming part of the Community Support Framework (CSF) for Greece 4 the take-up of appropriations for which is particularly low 4 also jointly funds the so-called ‘reform’ of secondary education, which was previously publicised using Epeaek resources. The ‘reform’, however, has given rise to a storm of protest from teacher and parent organisations as well as from students. The Ministry of Education has responded by launching a new publicity campaign, taking out expensive full-page advertisements in the daily press and advertising slots on radio. Furthermore, it is obvious that the new publicity campaign is not simply trying to inform public opinion but to stem the swelling tide of protest from political parties and the educational community as a whole. Moreover, the press advertisements make no reference to the Community Support Framework, except for a tiny logo as a pretext for covering the expense from Community funds, and nor do the radio slots, whereas both are financed from the Community Support Framework for education. In the light of this situation, will the Commission say: 1. whether it has been informed about the Ministry of Education’s new publicity campaign and, if so, to what extent it is satisfied with the conditions under which it is being conducted and the terms on which the CSF is being presented, 2. what the level of expenditure is for the first and the second Ministry of Education publicity campaign and under which Epeaek subprogramme they are being jointly funded, and 3. what measures it will take to put an end to the financing of government propaganda from Community funds? Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (10 March 1999) The Commission is not aware of the particular publicity campaign to which the Honourable Member refers. The Commission would like to point out that the national authorities are responsible for the implementation of the actions co-funded by the structural funds, including those for information and publicity. The Commission, therefore, has no information on the cost of this publicity campaign. However, the overall budget, agreed by the programme’s monitoring committee for information and publicity actions on the Epeaek programme, up to the end of the programming period, amounts to 500 million drachma (about €1,5 million. The operation is funded through measure 1 of the sub-programme 4 (technical assistance) of the programme ‘Education and initial training’. The Commission and the Greek Ministry of national economy have recently set up a joint steering committee with the aim of co-ordinating and monitoring the information and publicity activities for the Greek Community support framework