Select Committee on European Scrutiny Thirty-Eighth Report


9 Community action programmes in the fields of education, training and youth

(a)

(24610)

10051/03

COM(03) 273

(b)

(24616)

10184/03

COM(03) 272


Draft Decision establishing a Community action programme to promote bodies active at European level and support specific activities in the field of education and training.

Draft Decision establishing a Community action programme to promote bodies active at European level in the field of youth.

Legal base(a) Articles 149(4) and 150(4) EC; co-decision; QMV

(b) Article 149 (5) EC; co-decision; QMV

DepartmentEducation and Skills
Basis of considerationMinister's letter of 13 November 2003
Previous Committee ReportHC 63-xxviii (2002-03), paragraph 1 (2 July 2003)
To be discussed in Council24 November 2003
Committee's assessmentPolitically important
Committee's decision(Both) cleared

Background

9.1 The European Community currently supports bodies active at a European level in the fields of education, training and youth. This support generally takes the form of grants, administered directly by the Commission. From next year, because of the move to activity-based budgeting and by reason of the EC Financial Regulation,[13] the payment of the grants will require a specific legal base. These draft Decisions would provide the base for the programmes of support for bodies active in the fields of education, training and youth.

9.2 When we considered documents (a) and (b) in July, the Government told us that it would be seeking amendments to clarify and improve the drafting of both documents. [14] Moreover, while the Government supported the provision in document (a) for grants for the training of national judges in the application of competition law, it would seek to have the training provided by the European Judicial Training Network. Document (a) also proposes that the education and training programme should be for the period 2004-2008. In the Government's view, the programme should run until the end of 2006, when Member States could review the value of the expenditure and decide whether it should continue. We decided to keep documents (a) and (b) under scrutiny until we knew the outcome of the Government's negotiations.

Document (a)

9.3 This draft Decision proposes an action programme with a budget of €129.62 million to promote bodies active at European level, and support specific activities, in the field of education and training from 1 January 2004 until 31 December 2008.

9.4 The Annex to the draft Decision sets out the constituent parts of the action programme. Action 1 concerns support for specific institutions such as the College of Europe in Bruges and Natolin, the European University Institute in Florence and the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. Action 2 concerns support for European associations active in the field of education and sets out the criteria that must be met for grants to be awarded to them. Action 3A relates to support for activities in higher education concerning European integration. Action 3B concerns support for activities related to the three objectives of education and training systems in Europe agreed by the European Council in 2001[15]. Action 3C concerns support for the training of national judges in the application of European law. The Commission would have discretion to entrust all or part of the management of the programme to an executive agency in line with Article 55 of the Financial Regulation.

Document (b)

9.5 The general objective of the programme proposed in this draft Decision is to strengthen Community action in the field of youth and increase its effectiveness by promoting the bodies working in this field. The action programme would be in two parts. Part 1 would support the permanent activities of the European Youth Forum[16]. Part 2 would support the activities of bodies which contribute to EU policies on youth. Bodies seeking support under either Part would be selected by the Commission on the basis of applications following calls for proposals.

9.6 The programme would have a budget of €11.52 million for the period 2004-2006. The Commission would have discretion to delegate the management of the programme to an executive agency.

The Minister's letter

9.7 In his letter of 13 November 2003, the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education (Mr Alan Johnson) tells us about recent progress on the documents. He also encloses copies of the revised texts, which take account of the opinions of the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee and the views of Member States on the previous texts.

9.8 Commenting on the revised text of document (a), the Minister says that the Government has succeeded in obtaining agreement that funding the organisations listed in the draft Decision would be subject to the new Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities. Provision for this is included in the revised text. The Government is satisfied that this provides a suitable method of monitoring the effectiveness of each activity.

9.9 While the Government had suggested that the proposed training for national judges in the application of competition law could be provided by the European Judicial Training Network, this cannot be specified in the Decision because the selection of trainers is to be based on competition between prospective training bodies.

9.10 The Government has also succeeded in securing an amendment to document (a) which requires the Commission to make an annual report on the implementation of the programme. The Minister comments that this will provide a helpful mechanism to monitor the programme's activities.

9.11 The revised text of document (a) reduces the period of the programme to the three years from January 2004 to the end of December 2006. It sets the budget at just over €70 million.

9.12 The Minister tells us that the drafting of document (b) has been clarified and improved. The programme's budget for the three-year period January 2004 to the end of January 2006 is set at €11.10 million. The revised text also requires the Commission to make a report on the achievement of the objectives of the programme not later than the end of 2006.

9.13 The Government considers that both documents now meet the requirements of the Financial Regulation; that they have an appropriate legal base; that they are more precisely drafted; and that they are in compliance with the rules on State Aids.

Conclusion

9.14 We are grateful to the Minister for his helpful letter. We agree that the revised texts of both draft Decisions now meet the necessary financial and other requirements and that the drafting of both has been improved. We have decided, therefore, to clear documents (a) and (b) from scrutiny. We ask the Minister to provide us with copies of the final texts when adopted.


13   OJ No L 248, 16.9.2002, p.1. Back

14   See headnote. Back

15   (22184) 5980/01; see HC 28-ix (2000-01), paragraph 12 (21 March 2001). Back

16   A body made up of national youth councils and the international non-governmental youth organisations. Back


 
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