General programme "Fundamental Rights and Justice": specific programme "Fight against violence" - Daphne III Programme 2007-2013

 The committee adopted the report by Lissy GRÖNER (PES, D) amending - under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure - the proposal establishing the "Fight against violence (Daphne) and drugs prevention and information" specific programme as part of the general programme "Fundamental Rights and Justice".

The committee said that, in view of the important differences between the two issues, the fight against violence on the one hand and drugs prevention and information on the other should not be dealt with in a single specific programme but rather in two separate programmes. It therefore amended the title of the proposed decision so as to establish a "specific programme to prevent and combat violence against children, young people and women and to protect victims and groups at risk (Daphne III)". This would not be a new programme but a continuation of the two previous programmes (Daphne I and Daphne II). MEPs also made a series of technical adjustments throughout the text following on from this amendment.

The main amendments were as follows:

- the budget should be set at EUR 115.87 million for 2007-2013;

- a new article introduced a legal definition of the concepts of "children" and "young people" in accordance with international 'acquis' on this subject in order to define the scope of the programme;

- the Daphne III programme should promote the "European Year against violence against women" and support activities linked to the event, in the interests of  awareness-raising and sharing of good practice;

- the help desk service to NGOs and other organisations should be continued;

- a "think tank" should be established to provide guidelines to the Commission on the social, cultural and political context for the selection of projects;

- "clear and credible targets" should be laid down, such as halving the number of people who fall victim to violence and human trafficking over the next ten years;

- the programme should be open to a wider range of NGOs, as well as countries outside the EU, in particular Eastern European and Central Asian, ACP and Mediterranean countries. MEPs said that the Commission "should aim at ensuring the participation of all countries to which the programme is open";

- lastly, to ensure transparency, a list of the projects financed under the programme, together with a brief description of each project, should be published annually.