WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3496/98 by Bernd POSSELT to the Commission. 'Youth for Europe' application forms
21. 5. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 142/139 More and more Member States − besides those that already have registered partnerships − plan to introduce such a system. The existing Staff Regulations are thus becoming more and more outdated. 1. What are the provisional conclusions of the reflection group set up for this purpose? 2. When does the reflection group expect to conclude its investigation? Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (5 January 1999) Chapter 4. 2 (‘The impact of social change’) of the final report dated 6 November 1998 by the Reflection Group on Personnel Policy, a copy of which is being sent direct to the Honourable Member and Parliament’s Secretariat, comes to the following conclusion: As registered partnership satisfies all the de facto and de jure criteria underlying the inclusion in the Staff Regulations of special provisions for spouses (right to live together, financial interdependence, legal requirement to provide maintenance, and protection of the family in the case of the invalidity or death of officials), the Group recommends that the institution keep a close eye on developments in national legislation and be ready to amend the Staff Regulations when the time comes. (1999/C 142/182) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3496/98 by Bernd Posselt (PPE) to the Commission (25 November 1998) Subject: ’Youth for Europe’ application forms The application forms for the ‘Youth for Europe’ programme are at least 15 pages long, with very many questions only some of which are necessary. Accordingly, for voluntary youth leaders who have to struggle with these applications and have little experience of form-filling, they are a major obstacle and they are biased towards large organisations will full-time officials. That is not what I regard as the point of European youth work. Even with equivalent programmes in Germany the forms are much shorter and more manageable. Does the Commission see any scope here for getting rid of bureaucracy and simplifying things in the interests of young people? Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission (14 December 1998) The Youth for Europe III programme will come to an end in 1999. A fundamental change of the forms for this popular programme is not planned for its last year. The current application forms for the different actions of the programme facilitate first of all a thorough evaluation of projects in the framework of the selection process. It is also necessary to be able to ascertain to what extent the young people themselves are involved in the project. In addition, the data given in the project application serve as a basis for the evaluation of the final report on both the project content and financial issues. The Commission, however, is aware of the fact that some applicants do consider the forms burdensome. It will therefore simplify and shorten − as far as possible − the application forms for the future Youth programme from the year 2000