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

Of the 55 amendments tabled by the European Parliament, the Council took 32 into account. Out of these, the Council accepted seven in full (as did the Commission); accepted 17 amendments in principle or in part; and reached a compromise with the Parliament on 8 other amendments. In total, 19 amendments were not accepted. Further, the Council could not accept amendments 20; 69 and 72 relating to the European Network of Ombudspeople for Children (ENOC).Most of the other changes made by the Council are of a purely technical nature. The other main changes relate to:

- a new reference, in the recitals, to the role that local and regional organisations play in combating the root causes and consequences of violence;

- under the “General Objectives” the Council preferred to focus directly on the question of protecting children, young people and women against all forms of violence rather than mentioning the broader objective of setting an area of freedom, security and justice;

- under the “Specific Objectives” the Council changed the structure of the article, for the sake of clarity, so that there is only one specific objective, followed by a list of the various transnational actions;

- under “types of actions”, the Council preferred to revert to the situation in Daphne II where, to be eligible for funding under the programme, transnational projects of Community interest had to involve at least two, rather than three, Member States;

- under “Participation of third countries”, the structure has been changed to reflect the formula recently used in a Decision on the European Year of Equal Opportunities;

- under “Beneficiary and target groups” the Council decided to make a distinction between beneficiaries of the programme (children, young people and women who are, or who risk becoming victims of violence) and the main target groups of the programme, such as families, teachers, social workers and non-governmental organisations, etc.

- under “Implementing measures”, the amended Decision now stipulates that the annual work programme will establish minimum percentage of annual expenditure to be awarded to grants; that there the “management” comitology procedure for the annual work programme will be used (as was the case in the Daphne II programme) and that for other measures the “advisory” committee procedure will be used;

- in addition, the Council considered it appropriate to insert a reference to the recently adopted Community Programme PROGRESS dealing with Employment and Social Solidarity issues;

- on “Monitoring”, the Council decided to replace anti-fraud provisions with standard provisions concerning the protection of the Communities’ financial interests and on-the-spot checks and inspections, and provision concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office.

To conclude, the Council considers that, as a whole, the Common Position is fully in line with the fundamental objectives of the Commission’s amended proposal. The Common Position, argues the Council, is a good compromise and in conformity with an agreement reached with the EP in the course of informal negotiations.