12.10.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 245/1

---

List of appointments made by the Council

July, August and September 2006 (social field)

(2006/C 245/01)

Committee	End of term of office	Publication in OJ	Person replaced	Resignation/Appointment	Member/Alternate	Category	Country	Person appointed	Affiliation	Date of Council Decision
Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work	31.12.2006	C 321, 31.12.2003, C 116, 30.4.2004, C 122, 30.4.2004	Mr Pavel SKÁCELÍK	Resignation	Member	Workers	Czech Republic	Mr Jaroslav ZAVADIL	Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions	24.7.2006
Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work	31.12.2006	C 321, 31.12.2003, C 116, 30.4.2004, C 122, 30.4.2004	Mr Bo BARREFELT	Resignation	Alternate	Government	Sweden	Ms Anna-Lena HULTGÅRD SANCINI	Näringsdeparte-mentet	24.7.2006
Governing Board of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work	—	L 184, 15.7.2005 C 161, 5.7.2002, C 116, 30.4.2004	Mr Pat DONNELLAN	Resignation	Alternate	Government	Ireland	Mr Gavin LONERGAN	Health and Safety Authority	26.7.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Ms Henriette BENNICKE	Resignation	Member	Employers	Denmark	Mr Sven-Peter NYGAARD	DA	24.7.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Ms Mirja Maija TOSSAVAINEN	Resignation	Alternate	Employers	Finland	Ms Anu SAJAVAARA	Confederation of Finnish Industries EK	24.7.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Ms Eva HÖGL	Resignation	Alternate	Government	Germany	Ms Vera BADE	Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales	15.9.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Ms Mária NÁDAŽDYOVÁ	Resignation	Member	Goverement	Slovakia	Mr Miloslav HETTEŠ	Ministry of Labour Social Affairs and Family	25.9.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Ms Malgorzata CZAPKA	Resignation	Alternate	Employers	Poland	Mr Rafal BANIAK	Confederation of Polish Employers	25.9.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Ms Marie-Louise THORSEN-LIND	Resignation	Member	Employers	Sweden	Mr Sverker RUDEBERG	Confederation of Swedish Enterprise	25.9.2006
Governing Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	18.10.2007	C 317, 22.12.2004	Mr Sverker RUDEBERG	Resignation	Alternate	Employers	Sweden	Mr Christian ARDHE	Confederation of Swedish Enterprise	25.9.2006

---

12.10.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 245/4

---

Euro exchange rates (1)

11 October 2006

(2006/C 245/02)

1 euro=

	Currency	Exchange rate
USD	US dollar	1,2543
JPY	Japanese yen	149,96
DKK	Danish krone	7,4555
GBP	Pound sterling	0,67575
SEK	Swedish krona	9,2560
CHF	Swiss franc	1,5932
ISK	Iceland króna	86,04
NOK	Norwegian krone	8,4180
BGN	Bulgarian lev	1,9558
CYP	Cyprus pound	0,5767
CZK	Czech koruna	28,205
EEK	Estonian kroon	15,6466
HUF	Hungarian forint	267,36
LTL	Lithuanian litas	3,4528
LVL	Latvian lats	0,6960
MTL	Maltese lira	0,4293
PLN	Polish zloty	3,9098
RON	Romanian leu	3,5055
SIT	Slovenian tolar	239,60
SKK	Slovak koruna	36,870
TRY	Turkish lira	1,8725
AUD	Australian dollar	1,6830
CAD	Canadian dollar	1,4239
HKD	Hong Kong dollar	9,7749
NZD	New Zealand dollar	1,8987
SGD	Singapore dollar	1,9911
KRW	South Korean won	1 201,93
ZAR	South African rand	9,7054
CNY	Chinese yuan renminbi	9,9277
HRK	Croatian kuna	7,4212
IDR	Indonesian rupiah	11 567,78
MYR	Malaysian ringgit	4,6353
PHP	Philippine peso	62,740
RUB	Russian rouble	33,8030
THB	Thai baht	47,034

---

(1)  

Source: reference exchange rate published by the ECB.

---

12.10.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 245/5

---

Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys

(2006/C 245/03)

1.   Introduction

The Ecofin Council report to the European Council on 11 and 12 December 1999 in Helsinki on ‘Economic policy co-ordination’ (13123/1/99 Rev 1) called for an effective monitoring of economic policies in stage three of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). For this purpose, the Council considered the improved understanding of economic developments an essential prerequisite.

According to the Treaty, the Commission has an important role in informing the EU authorities, the Member States and the various economic agents on the economic situation and prospects, both at national and at Community level. One of the instruments to obtain timely information on economic developments are business and consumer surveys. For this reason, the Commission, through its Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, co-ordinates regular and harmonised business and consumer surveys in different economic sectors in the EU Member States and the candidate countries.

2.   The Need for a Joint Harmonised EU Programme

The regular business and consumer surveys of the joint harmonised EU Programme are qualitative economic surveys, intended for short-term economic analysis. The surveys are mainly used for qualitative economic analysis but increasingly also for quantitative economic research. Particularly, in recent years a variety of economic short-term forecasting methods have been developed that make use of the information provided in business and consumer surveys. Very often these models outperform traditional econometric models in forecasting macro-economic developments. More specifically, business and consumer survey data are increasingly used in predicting turning points in the economic cycle. Besides the surveys of the joint harmonised EU Programme, various other surveys of Commission services exist, such as from the Directorates-General for Enterprise and Industry, Employment and Communication. The approach of these surveys is different from those of the joint harmonised EU Programme since they are intended for long-term economic analysis and thus enquire about the various structural determinants of growth and employment.

The attractiveness of the survey data for qualitative and quantitative analysis stems from the fact that the survey data are normally available ahead of the quantitative information from other sources, which they are correlated with. The high frequency and continuous harmonisation of the surveys are some of their other main qualities. For this reason, business and consumer surveys have become an indispensable complement of quantitative statistical surveys, from which they differ in methods and use. As noted by the recent report of an external evaluation of the Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys (BCS) (1), the surveys can be considered a highly effective instrument to monitor the economic situation in the EU, the euro area and the Member States.

3.   Implementation of the Programme

The harmonised business and consumer surveys in the European Union were initialised in 1961 by the Commission. The first survey was the harmonised business survey in industry conducted in 1962. Since then, both the scope and the sectors covered by the surveys have expanded considerably. Particularly, the sector for private services, which accounts for an increasing share in the overall economy, has been included in the programme. In 2006, a pilot survey in the financial services sector was launched. The high sensitivity of this sector regarding confidentiality and the sector's idiosyncraticies in term of cyclical behaviour have been the motives behind the separation of this survey from the general service sector survey.

Over the past years, the surveys have been extended to cover all (post-enlargement) Members States as well as the candidate countries (2). The integration of the candidate countries into the programme at an early stage is necessary in order to provide reliable and comparable data to follow their economic evolution at present, and for the elaboration of correct EU aggregates once these countries become members of the EU. Due to an early integration of the countries involved, the recent enlargement of the EU was reflected in the Programme by a smooth and timely transition to new aggregate indicators.

The surveys are carried out at national level by collaborating institutions such as ministries, statistical institutes, central banks, economic research institutes, business associations and private companies. These institutions work with harmonised survey questionnaires elaborated in co-operation with the Commission services. The surveys feature also a number of other common elements in the area of sample design, field work and data transmission.

Conducting the surveys in accordance with a common methodology, in particular a harmonised questionnaire, leads to a better comparability of the data between different Member States and allows the construction of meaningful aggregated business cycle indicators for the euro area and the EU. Since this positive externality of harmonisation occurs mainly at EU and euro area level rather than at the level of the national survey-conducting institutions, the Commission decided from the outset to support the activity of the collaborating institutions with action grants (COM (61) PV 165 final, 15 November 1961). These grants, which are limited to a maximum of 50 % of the costs of the action, also intend to cover the incremental costs that arise initially from the inclusion of additional harmonised questions or the addition of new sectors and branches in the surveys and/or the change of certain questions from a non-harmonised type to a harmonised one. In contrast, where the national survey conducting institutions have no clear interest or vocation in conducting a particular type of survey, the Commission concludes a service contract with the selected survey conducting entity. In such cases the Commission covers the full cost of the survey.

The continuous development of the Joint Harmonised BCS Programme gave significant impulses to the advance of business and consumer surveys outside the EU. As mentioned in the above-cited evaluation report, the harmonised scheme of the European Union has been increasingly adopted as the international standard. Business and consumer surveys following the harmonised methodology are not only carried out in the 25 EU Member States and all candidate countries but also in a number of other countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe (e.g. Russia and Albania). In this regard, the EU harmonised surveys continue to serve as a benchmark for future co-operation. In particular, future applicant countries will be integrated in the programme as soon as membership negotiations with the European Union start.

The business surveys are addressed to managers in industry, construction, retail trade and services. The consumer surveys are addressed to private households. With the exception of the investment survey in industry all surveys are carried out on a monthly basis with some questions added every quarter. The investment survey is conducted twice a year. The number of questions varies between areas and lies between 6 and 15.

The data is normally collected in the first half of the month and transmitted to the Commission services around one week before the end of the month. More than 100 000 firms and over 30 000 consumers are surveyed each month in the EU, the samples varying in accordance with the size of the country. The industry survey covers 56 sectors whereas the other surveys include 5 to 9 different sectors. The consumers are split into 25 socio-economic categories.

A quarterly survey addressed to economic experts around the world, the World Economic Survey, is also included in the Programme and gives information about economic developments on a global scale.

In addition, ‘ad hoc’ surveys are conducted on issues of particular interest. As an example, ad hoc surveys concerning the labour market have been carried out with a periodicity of around five years. The results of the most recent survey of June 2004, which focused on labour market flexibility and the impact of new technologies on the performance of the EU labour market, has been published in 2005.

All questionnaires are constantly updated to meet the requirements of economic analysts. The Commission services organise regularly (once or twice a year) meetings with business survey experts in order to update the questionnaires, discuss issues of harmonisation and data presentation, and evaluate the results of the surveys. Occasionally, workshops and working groups are organised, which are addressed to a wider set of interested parties (including, e.g., user groups) with the purpose of developing certain aspects of the programme or discussing issues of common interest between EU and non-EU countries. Such workshops are sometimes organised in co-operation with other international bodies such as the OECD.

The maintenance and development of the database available at the Commission services, in which the data of the BCS Programme is stored, requires specialised software and the maintenance and development of appropriate tools to handle and analyse statistically and econometrically large quantities of time series data. Such tools include, for instance, procedures for assuring data consistency, the pre-adjustment and seasonal adjustment of the data or the construction and development of appropriate composite indicators. While most of these tasks are covered by the staff of the Commission services, in certain specific areas external expertise by specialised companies is sought after. Such technical assistance is limited to highly technical parts of the process at the end of the production chain and provides for a more efficient management of the Programme.

4.   Publication

The results of the surveys are used as such or summarised in composite indicators (economic sentiment and confidence indicators). The purpose of these composite indicators is to synthesise the information contained in the survey data and make the presentation of survey results more easily accessible. As timeliness is a key advantage of the survey data, the period between the transmission of the data from the national institutes and publication of the results by the Commission services has been shortened in successive steps over the past years. The results are now published on the last working day of the month during which the data was collected. The release of the data is accompanied by a press release. Monthly updated survey results, containing the data over the whole survey period, can be downloaded from the Internet at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/indicators/businessandconsumersurveys_en.htm

More detailed results, e.g. broken down by sectors, can be obtained from the Commission services on request. While previously such data was provided only against a fee, in accordance with the new policy these data are now provided free of charge.

5.   Use of the Information

The fact that the business and consumer survey results are available rapidly and that they contain information about economic agents' expectations makes them valuable for forecasting purposes.

The results of the surveys are intensively used by the Commission services as an indispensable tool for economic surveillance. This includes their use in the semi-annual macroeconomic forecasts and in the analysis of business cycle developments (e.g. determination of turning points). Some of the structural information contained (e.g. opinions on employment perspectives) are also used by various Commission services.

The surveys have become a fundamental source of information for monitoring the evolution of EMU. For instance, the European Central Bank uses these results as significant input for the assessment of the economic situation in the euro area.

Apart from the main actors in the field of economic policy at European level, the business and consumer survey results are also used by various international organisations, such as the OECD, and national public and private bodies for the construction of concurrent and leading economic indicators and, more generally, for forecasting purposes.

6.   Evaluation

For the economic sentiment indicator and other sector indicators to be useful, they must possess a series of properties such as consistency, timeliness, comparability, etc. Moreover, the quality of the indicators needs to be continuously examined by looking at their performance of tracking the macro-economic aggregates they represent. At the most aggregate level, the indicators should be able to track sufficiently well the development of GDP growth. A good tracking performance is also necessary for confidence indicators at sector level (industry, services, consumption etc.) in relation to their macro-economic reference variables (e.g. GDP, industrial production, gross value added of the private services sector, private consumption expenditure). The tracking record of the indicators needs to be continuously evaluated and modifications and improvements are to be made in line with the outcome of these evaluations. Various research projects and studies are being undertaken on a regular basis to develop new sector indicators or improve the existing ones in order to better follow the economic evolution.

While the utility of the programme for the work of various EU bodies and international organisations in the domain of economic policy has been demonstrated without doubt there is also a need to evaluate its usefulness, efficiency and effectiveness from an outside perspective. For this reason, a specialised consortium was engaged to carry out an evaluation of the existing programme as a whole. This evaluation addressed, amongst others, the following issues:

—	Survey quality and survey programme effectiveness

—	Efficiency and alternative contractual arrangements

—	Likely consequence of discontinuing EU co-financing

—	Users' future needs

The report (ECFIN/196/2004/385636, 22 April 2005) concludes that, while progress needs to be made on a continuous basis, the survey programme has largely met the quality requirements of the users in all respects, with the surveys considered to be a highly reliable and relevant instrument to monitor macroeconomic developments. The grant-based survey programme can be considered as cost-effective and any change in contractual arrangements such as a move to service contracts or to a centralised survey scenario would carry the risk of a substantial loss of important economic information. Likewise, a discontinuation of co-financing the surveys by the European Commission is likely to lead to the loss of harmonised European data. Users' future information needs include, inter alia, a further detailing of the services survey, more information on the financial situation of households and firms and more detailed data on the labour market.

7.   Reporting

The Commission will present every three years, starting in 2008, a report on the implementation of the Programme in 2006-2008, giving an overview regarding methodological developments and the use of the information provided by the programme.

8.   Conclusion

The results of the harmonised business and consumer surveys in the EU have become an important source of information for all those concerned with economic trends: public institutions, business management, researchers and, above all, economic decision-makers both at national and EU/euro area level. The survey data has become an indispensable tool for economic surveillance in the EU and for monitoring the economic prospects of the Economic and Monetary Union as well as the development of the candidate countries' economies. The Commission will assure that the programme will also fulfil this role in the future by constantly enhancing and improving its features thereby allowing it to continue to provide essential information for the purpose of economic decision making in the European Union.

---

(1)  The European Evaluation Consortium, Evaluation of Business and Consumer Surveys, Final Report, 22 April 2005

(2)  The BCS are part of the annual work programme of the Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs and are authorised by means of a financing decision adopted by the Commission

---

---

12.10.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 245/9

---

Information communicated by Member States regarding State aid granted under Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to training aid

(2006/C 245/04)

(Text with EEA relevance)

Aid No	XT 2/06
Member State	Spain
Region	Whole country
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid	State aid for small and medium-sized enterprises in the horse sector with a view to promoting and developing this sector: training courses for professionals in the sector
Legal basis	Real Decreto por el que se establecen las bases reguladoras de las subvenciones estatales destinadas al sector equino
Annual expenditure planned or overall amount of aid granted to the company	Aid scheme	Annual overall amount	EUR 0,25 million
		Loans guaranteed
	Individual aid	Overall aid amount
		Loans guaranteed
Maximum aid intensity	In conformity with Article 4(2)-(7) of the Regulation		Sí
Date of implementation	Publication in the Official State Gazette and entry into force
Duration of scheme or individual aid award	Until 30.6.2007
Objective of aid	General training		No
	Specific training		Yes
Economic sectors concerned	Limited to specific sectors		Yes
	Other services		Yes
Name and address of the granting authority	Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación Dirección General de Ganadería
	C/ Alfonso XII, 62 E-28014 Madrid
Large individual aid grants	In conformity with Article 5 of the Regulation		Yes

Aid No	XT 6/06
Member State	Italy
Region	Molise: varying levels of aid depending on the area where the measure is implemented
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid	Multiannual programme of measures designed to promote economic recovery in Molise following disasters: open notice concerning the granting of aid for craft firms
Legal basis	Ordinanza del Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri n. 3268 del 12 marzo 2003, e successive, che ha nominato il Presidente della Regione Molise, Commissario Delegato per gli eccezionali eventi sismici del 31 ottobre 2002 e per quelli meteorologici del gennaio 2003 ed ha previsto, all'art. 15, la predisposizione di un Programma pluriennale d'interventi diretti a favorire la ripresa produttiva nel territorio della Regione Molise. Tale Programma è stato approvato dalla Giunta regionale del Molise con Deliberazione n. 841 del 9 giugno 2004 e dal Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica, con Deliberazione n. 32 del 29 settembre 2004 (pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana n. 289 del 10 dicembre 2004).
	For the legal basis, see the specific section on the multiannual economic regeneration programme for Molise, on the region's official website (www.regione.molise.it)
Annual expenditure planned or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company	Aid scheme	Annual overall amount Average over three years	EUR 0,17 million
Maximum aid intensity	In conformity with Article 4(2)-(7) of the Regulation		Yes
Date of implementation	6.12.2005
Duration of scheme or individual aid award	Until 30.6.2008
Objective of aid	General training		Yes
	Specific training		Yes
Economic sectors concerned	Limited to specific sectors		Yes
	Other manufacturing		Yes
	Other services		Yes
Name and address of the granting authority	Commissario Delegato per l'Attuazione Operativa del Programma ex art. 15
	via XXIV Maggio, 130 I-86100 Campobasso
Large individual aid grants	In conformity with Article 5 of the Regulation		Yes

Aid No	XT 7/06
Member State	Italy
Region	Molise: varying levels of aid depending on the area where the measure is implemented
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid	Multiannual programme of measures designed to promote economic recovery in Molise following disasters: open notice concerning the granting of aid for craft firms
Legal basis	Ordinanza del Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri n. 3268 del 12 marzo 2003, e successive, che ha nominato il Presidente della Regione Molise, Commissario Delegato per gli eccezionali eventi sismici del 31 ottobre 2002 e per quelli meteorologici del gennaio 2003 ed ha previsto, all'art. 15, la predisposizione di un Programma pluriennale d'interventi diretti a favorire la ripresa produttiva nel territorio della Regione Molise. Tale Programma è stato approvato dalla Giunta regionale del Molise con Deliberazione n. 841 del 9 giugno 2004 e dal Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica, con Deliberazione n. 32 del 29 settembre 2004 (pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana n. 289 del 10 dicembre 2004)
	For the legal basis, see the specific section on the multiannual economic regeneration programme for Molise, on the region's official website (www.regione.molise.it).
Annual expenditure planned or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company	Aid scheme	Annual overall amount Average over three years	EUR 0,17 million
Maximum aid intensity	In conformity with Article 4(2)-(7) of the Regulation		Yes
Date of implementation	7.12.2005
Duration of scheme or individual aid award	Until 30.6.2008
Objective of aid	General training		Yes
	Specific training		Yes
Economic sectors concerned	All sectors eligible for training aid
	Limited to specific sectors		Yes
	Other: distributive trades		Yes
Name and address of the granting authority	Commissario Delegato per l'Attuazione Operativa del Programma ex art. 15
	via XXIV Maggio, 130 I-86100 Campobasso
Large individual aid grants	In conformity with Article 5 of the Regulation		Yes

Aid No	XT 9/06
Member State	Italy
Region	Toscana
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid	Aid scheme for foreign-language training for firms in the province of Prato
Legal basis	Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to training aid
	Deliberazione della Giunta camerale n. 11 del 1o febbraio 2006
Annual expenditure planned or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company	Aid scheme	Annual overall amount	EUR 60 000
	Individual aid	EUR 1 500 per firm
Maximum aid intensity	In conformity with Article 4(2)-(7) of the Regulation		Yes
Date of implementation:	1.3.2006
Duration of scheme or individual aid award	Until 31.12.2006
Objective of aid	General training		Yes
	Specific training		No
Economic sectors concerned	All sectors eligible for training aid		Yes
Name and address of the granting authority	Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Prato
	Via Valentini, 14 I-59100 Prato
Large individual aid grants	In conformity with Article 5 of the Regulation		Yes

Aid No	XT 13/06
Member State	Italy
Region	Molise: varying levels of aid depending on the area where the measure is implemented
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid	Multiannual programme of measures designed to promote economic recovery in Molise following disasters: open notice concerning the granting of aid for craft firms
Legal basis	Ordinanza del Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri n. 3268 del 12 marzo 2003, e successive, che ha nominato il Presidente della Regione Molise, Commissario Delegato per gli eccezionali eventi sismici del 31 ottobre 2002 e per quelli meteorologici del gennaio 2003 ed ha previsto, all'art. 15, la predisposizione di un Programma pluriennale d'interventi diretti a favorire la ripresa produttiva nel territorio della Regione Molise. Tale Programma è stato approvato dalla Giunta regionale del Molise con Deliberazione n. 841 del 9 giugno 2004 e dal Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica, con Deliberazione n. 32 del 29 settembre 2004 (pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana n. 289 del 10 dicembre 2004)
	For the legal basis, see the specific section on the multiannual economic regeneration programme for Molise, on the region's official website (www.regione.molise.it)
Annual expenditure planned or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company	Aid scheme	Annual overall amount Average over three years	EUR 0,53 million
Maximum aid intensity	In conformity with Article 4(2)-(7) of the Regulation		Yes
Date of implementation	16.2.2006
Duration of scheme or individual aid award	Until 30.6.2008
Objective of aid	General training		Yes
	Specific training		Yes
Economic sectors concerned	Limited to specific sectors		Yes
	Other manufacturing		Yes
	Other services		Yes
Name and address of the granting authority	Commissario Delegato per l'Attuazione Operativa del Programma ex art. 15
	via XXIV Maggio, 130 I-86100 Campobasso
Large individual aid grants	In conformity with Article 5 of the Regulation		Yes

Aid No	XT 17/06
Member State	Malta
Region	N/A
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid	My Web for Industry
Legal basis	Malta Enterprise Act (Cap. 463)
Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company	Aid scheme	Annual overall amount	EUR 70 000
		Loans guaranteed
	Individual aid	Overall aid amount
		Loans guaranteed
Maximum aid intensity	In conformity with Article 4(2)-(7) of the Regulation		Yes
Date of implementation	15.3.2006
Duration of scheme or individual aid award	Until 31.12.2006
Objective of aid	General training		Yes
	Specific training		No
Economic sectors concerned	All sectors eligible for training aid		Yes
Name and address of the granting authority	Malta Enterprise
	Enterprise Centre, Industrial Estate MT-San Gwann SGN 09
Large individual aid grants	In conformity with Article 5 of the Regulation

Aid number:	XT 54/03
Member State	(United Kingdom and) Republic of Ireland
Region	32 Counties of the island of Ireland — Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.
Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving an individual aid	FOCUS
Legal basis	British/Irish Agreement Act 1999 Section 2.3 Part 7 of Annex 2 of the Act empowers InterTradeIreland to invest, lend or grant aid for the purposes of its function.
Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company	Maximum cost per company 2002: GBP 25 400 2003: GBP 25 400 Maximum total funded element 2002: GBP 254 000 2003: GBP 254 000 Notes: 20 projects will be established and implemented during 2002-2004. Cost per project is GB 25 400 over 12-month duration. The GBP 25 400 per project is paid in quarterly instalments over the 12-month period. Annual expenditure for the overall FOCUS scheme of 20 projects is calculated on the basis that the projects will commence mid-2002 and be completed mid-2003. Therefore, spend is apportioned across the two years Total funding element for 20 projects over 2 years = GBP 508 000. This represents 65 % of the total project cost with the remaining 35 % attributed by the participating enterprises
Maximum aid intensity	Up to a maximum of GBP 25 400 assistance per project per annum representing 65 % aid intensity.
Date of implementation, duration	Proposed scheme to run for 2 years from date of approval. Individual companies will be eligible for assistance for a maximum of 12 months
Objective of aid	The objective of the aid is to train high-calibre graduates in sales and marketing with a view to preparing them for senior management. The training is general as it is generic to all participating graduates and provides skills which are transferable across industry. It is intended that the FOCUS programme will provide participating graduates with part or full accreditation towards membership of relevant professional bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing and/or the Marketing Institute of Ireland
Economic sector(s) concerned	All sectors
Name and address of the granting authority	InterTradeIreland The Old Gasworks Business Park
	Kilmorey Street Newry Co Down Irlande du Nord BT34 2DE United Kingdom

---