WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3584/98 by Alexandros ALAVANOS to the Commission. Funding of psychosocial support programmes for students with special needs at Greek universities
21. 7. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 207/91 More precisely, have any funds been released from the budget to alleviate the damage caused by the forest fires in Tenerife (Canary Islands), Catalonia, Galicia and Castilla-León? What are the usual procedures for granting such aid? Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (11 January 1999) The Honourable Member is asked to refer to the answer given by the Commission to Written Question E-3373/98 by Mrs Ferrer (1) concerning aid granted to Spain and to Catalonia for forest fire prevention. Apart from the fire prevention measures part-financed under Council Regulation (EEC) 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the Community’s forests against fire (2), and the reafforestation measures and erosion control measures provided for in regional development plans and part-financed by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and the Cohesion Fund, the Commission does not have any additional financial resources available to help the disaster regions. However, measures in the Single Programming Document (SPD) may be reprogrammed to allocate appropriations to emergency measures introduced as a result of the recent forest fires. However, the members of the SPD monitoring committee have not yet been approached by the region concerned with such a request. If they do approve an application their decision must be communicated to the Commission so that the reprogramming procedure may be set in motion. See page 60. (1) (2) OJ L 217, 31. 7. 1992. (1999/C 207/122) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3584/98 by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (3 December 1998) Subject: Funding of psychosocial support programmes for students with special needs at Greek universities Students with special needs face particular obstacles in addition to the problems they share with other students of their age-group, because their disability prevents them from taking part in university life, which means that they become increasingly marginalised from society. Given that the establishment of a counselling centre at Greek universities providing immediate psychosocial support for students, and particularly students with special needs, could help them, will the Commission say whether there is any scope for funding psychosocial support programmes for students, and, if so, under which Community programmes? Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (5 February 1999) The European social fund (ESF) supports actions which strengthen and improve the education and training systems in objective 1 regions and which promote integration of people excluded from the labour market (Council Regulation (EEC) 2084/93 (1)). In the Greek Community support framework (CSF) the above objectives are served by the operational programmes ‘Education and initial training’ and ‘Combating exclusion from the labour market’. Concerning the mobility of students in the framework of the Socrates/Erasmus programme, expenses for providing psycho-social support to incoming students from other Member States are eligible expenses under the individual contracts between the Commission and the recipient universities. (1) OJ L 193, 31. 7. 1993