The European Parliament adopted the recommendation for second reading by Mr SISO CRUELLAS. The European Parliament considered it unacceptable for the Council to introduce financial provisions for the 1995-1999 period, given that such decisions should be taken by the budgetary authority (mainly the European Parliament). Consequently, the article referring to the sum of 2,345 million ecus for this period has been deleted.
Apart from the financial aspects, Parliament adopted several amendments to:
- allow Community funding in excess of the 10% ceiling in the case of small-scale projects and/or projects involving minor investment (up to a maximum ceiling of 30%);
- take account of the environmental impact of projects;
- develop partnership between the public and private sectors;
- safeguard both the financial and the economic and social return on projects, including their impact on employment;
- take account of the cross-border nature of projects and their ability to fill in gaps in the network;
- ensure that projects are compatible with Community policies (transport, energy, telecommunications, environment, competition, public procurement);
- strengthen provisions relating to coordination, management and financial control.�