WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3257/98 by Francisco SANZ FERNÁNDEZ to the Commission. Culture and the Structural Funds
28. 6. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 182/55 Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (16 November 1998) The forms with explanatory notes do exist in Finnish. Commission Decision 97/266/EC, of 18 December 1996 concerning a site information format for proposed Natura 2000 sites (1) has been published. Thus there should be no linguistic problem for Finnish people. (1) OJ L 107, 24. 4. 1997. (1999/C 182/068) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3257/98 by Francisco Sanz Fernández (PSE) to the Commission (28 October 1998) Subject: Culture and the Structural Funds Can the Commission supply details of the number, type and value of the aid operations it conducted under the Structural Funds in the cultural field (infrastructure, heritage, artistic creation, books and reading, new technology, etc. ) during the period 1994-98? Can it supply the above details by operational programme? Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (8 December 1998) As the Commission made clear in its communication ‘Cohesion policy and culture 3 A contribution to employment’ (1), it is not possible to provide precise information on assistance given to culture under the mainstream operations of the structural funds. This is because the Commission’s role is to adopt and co- finance programmes. The individual projects making up the programmes are selected and managed within the Member States. In addition, the facts that the cultural sector is not homogeneous and that there are significant variations in definition and statistical classification of culture make precise and systematic data collection impossible. Instead, the Commission has published some examples of good practice such as those included in the above communication or, more recently, in the publication ‘Investing in culture: an asset for all regions’, which extends well beyond the structural funds and which is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament’s Secretariat. Nevertheless, as regards the special case of pilot projects under Article 10 of the European regional development fund Regulation (2), the Commission has launched a programme of 32 projects on cultural innovation with a total Community financial participation of ECU 15 million. These innovative actions aim to study the potentialities of culture as a lever for local development, notably by the use of new technologies, and contribute to reinforcing Community cohesion and territorial development, notably by transfer of know-how. The projects are still in progress and they will be evaluated in order to draw operational conclusions for regional policy. (1) COM(96) 512 final. (2) OJ L 193, 31. 7. 1993