WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3941/98 by María IZQUIERDO ROJO Cost of publicity for the Albaicín urban pilot project
6. 11. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 320/91 According to information published recently, Europe has decided to continue for a few years without increasing its funding. Furthermore, the loss of confidence in the long-term viability of the tokamak option (ITER) is renewing interest in other options such as stellarator-type reactors. Can the Commission say what its intentions are in this area and what the Japanese and Russian positions are? Also, can it provide information about the EU’s budget line earmarked for this purpose for the duration of the Fifth Framework Programme? Finally, will the justification for this line remain unchanged following the US decision? Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission (10 February 1999) While the Community (according to the fifth framework programme) as well as Japan and Russia maintain a reactor -oriented approach pursuing a long-term energy and environmental strategy, the United States department of energy fusion programme has shrunk to a purely science-oriented programme. It may be noted that this is the result of a budget decreased by two thirds over the past 15 years. The substantial database and know-how on magnetic confinement resulting from both the ITER EDA (Engineering design activities) and the research world-wide on Tokamak and concepts akin to it. such as Stellarators. lead to increasing confidence in the relevance of the reduced-mission/costs experimental reactor option presently under design in the framework of the reduced-scope three year extension of the ITER EDA agreement. Overall, the completion of the United States withdrawal from ITER by July 1999 will not cause increased costs for the continuing three parties. (1999/C 320/124) WRITTEN QUESTION P-3941/98 by María Izquierdo Rojo (PSE) to the Commission (21 December 1998) Subject: Cost of publicity for the Albaicín urban pilot project How much did the recently published leaflets, posters and other publicity material on the Albaicín-Santa Isabel la Real urban pilot project cost, in detail? Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (1 February 1999) The Albaicin urban pilot project in Granada was approved by the Commission in July 1997 under Article 10 of the European regional development fund (ERDF) Regulation (1) concerning innovative action and pilot projects. It was selected as one of 26 projects from over 500 projects submitted by cities in the Community. The criteria for selection included the innovative and demonstrative character of the project, with the aim of sharing the expertise gained in the project not just at local and regional level, but also at national and European levels. For this reason, the promotion and diffusion of publicity and other material about the project is an important element of the overall programme and all projects have part of their budgets allocated for this purpose. In the case of the Albaicin urban pilot project, 2,5 % of the total budget has been allocated for promotion and publications. The total cost of the project is 6 million euro, of which ERDF funding is 2,95 million euro. (1) OJ L 193, 31. 7. 1993