Decision No 792/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 establishing a Community action programme to promote bodies active at European level in the field of culture

• Published date: 30 April 2004
• Subject Matter: culture
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 138, 30 April 2004

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32004D0792

Decision No 792/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 establishing a Community action programme to promote bodies active at European level in the field of culture

Official Journal L 138 , 30/04/2004 P. 0040 - 0049

Decision No 792/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

of 21 April 2004

establishing a Community action programme to promote bodies active at European level in the field of culture

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 151(5) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having consulted the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty [1],

Whereas:

(1) The Treaty confers responsibility on the Community for creating an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe and for contributing to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore.

(2) The Laeken Declaration annexed to the conclusions of the European Council of 14 and 15 December 2001 asserts that one of the basic challenges to be resolved by the European Union is to bring citizens closer to the European design and the European institutions.

(3) The Council and the Ministers of Culture meeting within the Council, in the Resolution of 14 November 1991 on European cultural networks [2], stressed the important role of networks of cultural organisations in cultural cooperation in Europe, and agreed to encourage the cultural organisations in their countries to participate actively in non-governmental cooperation on a European scale.

(4) The Council Resolution of 19 December 2002 [3] expressed how the European added value of cultural actions can be identified and evaluated.

(5) Heading A-3042 of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2003 and previous financial years provides support for organisations of European cultural interest.

(6) Further to the resolutions of the European Parliament on regional languages and cultures, the European Union has engaged in action to promote and safeguard the linguistic diversity in the Union, in order to preserve languages as an element in Europe's living cultural heritage.

(7) At the request of the European Parliament, the Commission has provided support since 1982 for a non-profit-making body, the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL), which is organised as a network of national committees working in the Member States, and since 1987 for the Mercator information and documentation network. These pursue an aim of general European interest: EBLUL represents all regional or minority language communities in the European Union and disseminates European information in these communities; the Mercator information and documentation network collects and disseminates at European level information on three aspects which are essential to the promotion of regional and minority languages: education, legislation and the media.

(8) Heading A-3015 of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2003 and previous financial years provides support for these two bodies.

(9) On 11 February 1993, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on European and international preservation of the sites of Nazi concentration camps as historical memorials [4].

(10) Heading A-3035 of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2003 and previous financial years provides support for the preservation of the sites of Nazi concentration camps as historical memorials.

(11) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities [5], hereinafter "the Financial Regulation", requires a basic act to be provided to cover these existing support actions. The Commission undertook to take into account the remarks entered in the budget in the context of implementation.

(12) The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, when adopting the Financial Regulation, undertook to achieve the objective of ensuring that this basic act comes into force as from the financial year 2004.

(13) It is necessary to ensure appropriate funding stability and continuity, within the framework of the Financial Regulation, for institutions to which the European Community has granted financial support over previous years.

(14) Transitional arrangements are deemed necessary for the years 2004 and 2005 to allow grants to be awarded under part 2 of this Community programme. It is deemed appropriate to make use of the exception mentioned in Article 168(1)(d) of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 [6] which allow grants to be awarded without a call for proposals to bodies identified by a basic act as recipients of a grant.

(15) Any non-Community financing from State resources should comply with Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty.

(16) This Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the programme, a financial framework constituting the prime reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure [7]...