WRITTEN QUESTION E-4175/97 by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE) to the Commission (21 January 1998)

Subject: Cohesion policy and culture

Can the Commission say what cultural pilot projects were cofinanced during the programming period 1989-1993 and during the current programming period (1994-1999) under Article 10 of the ERDF Regulation, specifying the countries involved, the regional objective under which each project came, the total cost of execution and the amount cofinanced by the Community?

Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (5 March 1998)

Pilot projects on inter-regional cultural cooperation under Article 10 of the European Regional Development Fund Regulation ((OJ L 193, 31.7.1993. )) were first launched in the 1994-99 programming period.

The main reason for launching such pilot projects was that disadvantaged parts of the Community often have a significant cultural heritage which is sometimes poorly exploited and could be put to better effect by networking with other local and regional authorities, with a view to improving experience, exchanging know-how and promoting economic development in those areas in the cultural field.

The pilot inter-regional cooperation projects in the cultural field thus constitute an element of cohesion policy.

A call for proposals (No 95/C 253/11) was published in the Official Journal in September 1995 ((OJ C 253, 29.9.1995. )). The Commission subsequently selected 32 projects out of the 265 proposals received.

The cooperation networks had to include partners from the local or regional authorities in three to six different regions and at least three Member States. The number of objective areas 1, 2, 5b and 6 participating in a network could not be a minority in relation to the total number of participants. Total funding of ECU 15 million was provided for this pilot scheme with a maximum Community contribution of ECU 600 000 per project.

The projects selected mainly focussed cooperation on enhancing the value of the cultural heritage, exchanges of know-how with a view to carrying out restoration work, devising cultural itineraries and using new information technologies in the creation of a virtual museum.

In terms of the geographical origin of the network leaders, the pilot projects are distributed as follows:

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The 32 pilot projects were launched on 1 January 1997 for a two-year period.

An Internet site has been created at the Commission's proposal, providing a list of the 32 pilot projects, the sphere of cooperation, the network partners and the main funding figures. This site may be consulted at the following address: http:\\www.aeidl.be\art10\.