WRITTEN QUESTION E-1099/00 by Glenys Kinnock (PSE) to the Commission. Funding for Kosovo.
C 53 E/72 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 20. 2. 2001 The education system is also affected in several ways. Firstly, HIV/AIDS has an impact on education as a system, and secondly, training, teaching, syllabuses and curricula need to be adapted to provide informa- tion and education on life skills, risks and protection related to sexual behaviour and vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. There is consequently a need for the donor community and the Community to help create a better environment for tackling support for HIV/AIDS training and education. The Community has already supported several the young. It recognises that more needs to be done in this specific field. life skill education programmes in relationship with HIV/AIDS for In the field of education, there has been a radical shift between LomØ III and revised LomØ IV (1995-2000). Whereas, under LomØ III and IV, such investment was financially limited, dispersed and not targeted at basic education, the implementation of the revised LomØ IV signalled a radical change. There was a considerable increase in financial resources (15 % of the total), priority being for primary education (80 % of the total amount for education) and in every programme there is a significant component devoted to teacher training. A document showing the 8th European development fund (EDF) commitments (plus South Africa) and sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliamentís Secretariat, affords only a partial picture of investment as a number of large national programmes (e. g. Nigeria) and regional programmes have not yet been committed. AIDS programmes are funded from a variety of instruments, such as national indicative programmes, regional intra-African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) funds (for an amount of € 20 million) and a specific budget line for AIDS and population (+/- € 20 million in the year 2000). An overall evaluation of education, training and health activities under the 7th and 8th EDF is currently in progress. It will give specific information about HIV/AIDS related training. Besides funding programmes in the field, the Commission is actively participating in all the international fora where this crucial question is being debated with the donor community and the counterparts. The Commission attended the coming world education forum at Dakar 26th-28th April 2000, where a sub- plenary session on 27th April 2000 discussed the issue under the title Overcoming the effects of HIV/AIDS on basic educationí. (2001/C 53 E/087) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1099/00 by Glenys Kinnock (PSE) to the Commission (7 April 2000) Subject: Funding for Kosovo Does the Commission feel that the allocation of funds for the rehabilitation and development of Kosovo might affect the EUís capability to provide essential funds for the worldís poorest countries? Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission (25 May 2000) The Commission believes that the level of funding it is proposing for the rehabilitation of Kosovo will not affect the Communityís ability to provide essential funds for the worldís poorest countries. 20. 2. 2001 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 53 E/73 The proposed allocations for Kosovo take into account the following three considerations: ü the priority which the Community gives to countries near Europe; ü the poverty focus of the programmes; for example increases for the programmes in Asia have been maintained as they have a high poverty focus; ü past and present performance of the different programmes in terms of absorption capacity and evolution. The proposed total for Heading 4 represents an increase for 2000-2006 as compared to the previous period 1993-1999. (2001/C 53 E/088) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1101/00 by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission (7 April 2000) Subject: Food safety and probiotics in poultry In the last two years, a major project carried out at Leahurst Veterinary Field Station, University of Liverpool, has shown that it is possible to reduce significantly the major pathogens of concern to humans by making use of the probiotic product, Protexin. This work was partly funded by the Commission through the UK Department of Trade and Industry. At the moment, the Commission cannot look into the effects of Protexin because of its judgment that probiotic poducts should not contain more than two strains of micro-organisms. Would the Commission be able to reconsider this rule in the interests of not ruling out, without due investigation, the potential benefits of probiotic products containing more than two strains of micro- organisms? Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission (7 July 2000) Council Directive 70/524/EEC of 23 November 1970, concerning additives in feedingstuffs (1) requires that a Community authorisation be granted prior to the use and marketing of an additive in feedingstuffs. The Protexin dossiers were first evaluated under Council Directive 93/113/EC of 14 December 1993, concerning the use and marketing of enzymes and micro-organisms in animal nutrition (2). The objective of the Directive was to list the enzyme and micro-organism products which were used in the Member States with no formal approval, to evaluate the corresponding dossiers and to authorise those products which complied with the requirements of Directive 70/524/EEC and of Council Directive 87/153/EEC of 16 February 1987, fixing guidelines for the assessment of additives in animal nutrition (3), last amended by Commission Directive 94/40/EC of 22 July 1994 (4). The Protexin dossiers were evaluated in the course of 1996. According to the group of national experts in charge of the assessment, none of the 9 Protexin products complied with the prerequisites of Articles 2 and 7 of Directive 70/524/EEC and none of the dossiers followed the requirements of Directive 87/153/ EEC. The members of the standing committee for animal nutrition formally endorsed the conclusions of the group of experts on 6 May 1997