Action in the field of culture: Culture 2007 programme (2007-2013)

The Commission accepts the three amendments proposed by the European Parliament. These amendments are the result of a global compromise between the European Parliament and the Council in view of the second reading. They are in line with the objectives of the initial proposal of the Commission:

§         the 1^st amendment underlines the need already expressed in the initial proposal to go beyond a mere project-approach and to support the permanent activities of cultural organisations active at the European level;

§         the 2^nd amendment limits the comitology procedure to one sub-strand of the programme (i.e. multi-annual cooperation projects) and is much closer to the initial proposal of the Commission than the Council common position. The comitology procedure will apply neither to short duration projects (strand 1.2, cooperation measures) not to cultural organisations (strand 2) so as to avoid a longer internal decision-making procedure for the implementation of the programme with no real added value;

§         the 3^rd amendment will reduce the number of days between the publication of the Decision in the Official Journal and its entry into force, from 20 to just one, which will speed up the implementation of the programme.

The Commission would like to draw the attention of the legislative Authority to the need to have the financial envelope mentioned in the legal act establishing the Culture programme (2007-2013) written in current prices, at the latest when it is published in the Official Journal. This corresponds to the usual budgetary practice and enables to ensure in a transparent way that the Decision of the legislative Authority is adhered to. For the new Culture programme, the financial envelope is EUR 400 million in current prices.