Culture 2000 programme for the period 2000-2004

In its opinion following the second reading of the European Parliament, the Commission has accepted in their entirety, in part or in spirit, 13 out of the 14 amendments proposed by the European Parliament. The only amendments which were not accepted relate to the "Culture 2000" programme's budget (EUR 250 million were requested by the Parliament instead of EUR 167 million proposed by the Council). To recapitulate, the amendments taken up relate to the following points : - the title of the proposal replacing the term "cultural policy" with "cultural cooperation"; - the addition of a further objective aiming to improve access and participation in culture for a wider audience; - the replacement of the old text with the provisions on "Management procedure" in force since 1999; - the drawing up of a detailed mid-term assessment report on the results of the Culture 2000 programme not later than 31.12.2002 and which is also to be presented to the Economic and Social Committee; - information regarding the number of operators required for eligibility of projects (a minimum of 3 Member States); - the extension of the notion of "special cultural event" to actions of the European prize type, support for projects for conserving and safeguarding the cultural heritage, etc.; - recourse to technical assistance organisations should not exceed the annual budget of 3%; - the amendment of the overall budget breakdown for the programme and indicative estimate of percentages of the budget to be allocated to the main cultural activities (and specifying that 11% of the programme's budget should relate to books and reading); - the amendment of certain actions integrated within transnational cultural cooperation agreements (in particular, taking up again amendments relating to the amount of Community support for planned actions and the number of operators required for the eligibility of projects). Moreover, the Commission does not accept the amendment relating to the list of activities covered by cooperation agreements, as well as that regarding the role of the management committee.�