91998E3885

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3885/98

by Klaus-Heiner Lehne (PPE) to the Commission

(4 January 1999)

Subject: European aid for the Netherlands Antilles

Is it true that the Deutsch-Caribbean Travel Centre in Frankfurt has received EU aid for an advertising campaign?

Is it also true that that advertising budget amounts to about EUR 5,5 million from EU funds?

On what legal basis and from which aid fund was that amount paid out to DCTC?

How does the Commission justify the granting of this aid when these Caribbean islands, compared with other regions, enjoy a high standard of living with very little poverty or crime?

What is the objective of the aid?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission

(22 January 1999)

It is not quite accurate to say that the Dutch Caribbean Travel Centre in Frankfurt has received Community aid for an advertising campaign.

The aid in question, part of a regional programme for the Caribbean, is for a EUR 5 million project to promote tourism in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. The target audience comprises the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Italy and the Netherlands, and the project includes EUR 1,56 million for technical assistance over four years, in the form of overall coordination services and technical support for the Dutch Caribbean Travel Centre in Frankfurt.

As with all Community finance for this category of country from the seventh European Development Fund, the legal basis for the aid is Council Decision 91/482/EEC of 25 July 1991 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Economic Community (1), adopted by the representatives of the Member States meeting within the Council. In any case, before the Commission adopts the financing decision for each individual project it also obtains the approval of the Member States via the EDF Committee.

(1) OJ L 263, 19.9.1991.