I refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 351 of 26 June 2001 in which I gave details of the meetings of the Council of Ministers since July 1997 and the attendance for each meeting. There have been ten formal meetings of the EU Council of Ministers since June 1997. Of these, I attended the meetings on 24 November 1997, 17 November 1998, 23 November 2000 and 21 June 2001. The critical decisions in relation to culture and audio-visual matters were taken at these meetings. For example, the main political debate on the single framework for culture – Culture 2000 – and the decision on the European capital of culture event for the period 2005 to 2019 took place at the Council meeting on 17 November 1998.
The most important decision concerning the European audio-visual industry – the adoption of the Media Plus programme – was taken at the meeting on 23 November 2000. I was involved in the political discussion around this proposal. At the meeting on 21 June 2001 the most important issue from my perspective was the Commission announcement of its intention to explore certain legal aspects in relation to the audio-visual industry. I took part in the discussion following the Commission announcement and my views were echoed by the other member states. I was represented at all other formal meetings by Ireland's deputy permanent representative to the European Union.
