European Year of People with Disabilities 2003

The European Parliament proposed 52 amendments, 27 of which were accepted fully or in part by the Commission. The amendments accepted by the Commission have been incorporated into the revised proposal. Most of the amendments adopted by the Parliament and accepted by the Commission serve to reinforce or clarify the Decision's objectives, thereby improving the text. With one of the amendments, the Parliament has also asked for 90% of the eligible costs of certain Community scale measures. However, the Commission considers that the rate of 80% should be retained, given that this is the rate already agreed for the awareness measures under the Community anti-discrimination programme. The Commission is also unable to accept adjusting the funding of actions undertaken by the Member States to 60%. This proposal would reduce the multiplier effect the Commission hopes to draw from this measure. In the interests of clarity and concision, the Commission could not accept certain amendments duplicating provisions already contained in the initial proposal. Finally, the Parliament was prompting the Commission to use the Year as an opportunity to make new legislative proposal. However, these latter suggestions cannot easily be accepted in their current form, as the Commission cannot commit itself to a proposal to make further proposals. The Commission nevertheless considers that the European Year will provide an appropriate and necessary framework for discussing the Parliament's proposed initiatives.�