Kaleidoscope: Community action programme 1996-1998 to support artistic and cultural activities with a European dimension

In its opinion amending the proposal following the European Parliament's opinion at second reading, the Commission stated that it would 4 of the 11 amendments put forward by the EP. These amendments were aimed at: - highlighting the possibility of support for cultural projects including continuing training for artists; - for large-scale actions, re-establishing the minimum condition of participation by three Member States (rather than five, as proposed by the Council); - incorporating the term "significant" with regard to large-scale actions; - re-establishing support for cultural projects celebrating Europe Day on 9 May while stressing that the organisation of such cultural projects was entirely at the discretion of the Member States. As far as the other amendments were concerned, the Commission indicated that in some instances (the duration and budget of the programme and reintroduction of the advisory committee) it preferred to stick to the Council's text so that the decision could be adopted as soon as possible. For other amendments, it felt that it was possible to reach a compromise by alternative methods: - access to the programme for the least-favoured sections of the population, and so on: the Commission suggested that a specific programme be set up to take consideration of participation of these groups; - removal of the reference to the European city of culture in the programme: the Commission felt that it would be wise to maintain a budgetary basis for Community support allocated to this project until the next programme was adopted, although it agreed with the substance of the EP's amendment. It thus proposed that specific provisions be drawn up for this project for 1999, 2000 and 2001 and that this alternative should be confirmed by means of a recital in the decision. �