Vol. 540 No. 3
3 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the number of EU Council of Culture Ministers meetings held since June 1997 to date; the number of such meetings attended by the Minister; and the number of such meetings attended by the former Minister of State during that period. [20433/01]
Formal meetings of the Council of the European Union for Culture and Audio-visual Affairs are held every six months, unusually in May-June and November-December at the end of the term of each Presidency. Ten formal meetings of the EU Council of Ministers have been held since June 1997. Of these, I attended meetings on 24 November 1997, 17 November 1998, 23 November 2000 and 21 June 2001.
Critical decisions in regard 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 of 17 November 1998. The most important decision concerning the European audio-visual industry, namely the adoption of the MEDIA PLUS programme, was taken at the meeting of 23 November 2000 and I was involved in the political discussion around this proposal. At the meeting of 21 June 2001, the most important issue from my perspective was the Commission announcement of its intention to explore certain legal aspects in regard to the audio-visual industry. I participated in the discussion following the Commission announcement and my views were echoed by other member states. I was represented at all other formal meetings by Ireland's deputy permanent representative to the European Union.
Informal meetings of Ministers are hosted by the member state which holds the EU Presidency. Such meetings provide the opportunity for political debate on various issues identified by the Presidency as being of particular importance. Decisions are not taken at informal Council meetings of which there have been seven. I attended meetings on 11 and 12 September 1998, 18-20 July 1999, 20-22 July 2000 and 21 and 22 May 2001. I was represented at the other meetings by senior Department officials.
Will the Minister confirm that she attended a very important meeting in September last which dealt with the MEDIA PLUS programme which determines EU subsidies to the audio-visual industry? Ten Council of Minister meetings have been held since the Minister took office and she appears to have attended only four of these. Does she consider this an adequate record?
The Deputy will be aware that decisions are not taken at every meeting. Of particular importance were the meetings dealing with Culture 2000 and MEDIA PLUS. The MEDIA PLUS programme to which the Deputy specifically refers is a very important issue and the decision thereon was taken on 23 November 2000. Not only was I at that meeting, I was very happy to lead the discussions. I have reason to believe it was the Irish proposal advanced on that occasion which won the support of my EU colleagues.
Question No. 4 answered with Question No. 2.
