Community action programme 1997-1998 in the fields of books and reading, ARIANE

The rapporteur regretted that Parliament had not managed to obtain the ECU 10.5 million it wanted from the Council for this two-year programme. The total budget was ECU 7 million. She wanted priority to be given to small independent publishers and to the translation of works published in less widely used languages. Commissioner Brittan shared the rapporteur’s disappointment and stated that a conference on Ariane would be held in November. He said finally that the number of applications received during the year had increased significantly compared to the number submitted during the pilot scheme the previous year.