§ Mr. MacShaneTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many(a) successful and (b) unsuccessful attempts have been made by United Kingdom organisations in the last four years to obtain funds from the EU's (i) Media, (ii) Raphael, (iii) Ariadne 20W and (iv) Kaleidoscope schemes; and what funds have already been allocated to the United Kingdom under each of these schemes. [12345]
§ Mr. SproatMedia II, the European Community's initiative to enhance the strength of member states' national audiovisual industries, began in 1996. Under the 1996 programme, 86 proposals from the United Kingdom have been successful. Information regarding the funds allocated, and the number of unsuccessful applications, is not available from the Commission.
Raphael, the European Community support programme in the field of cultural heritage, has yet to be formally adopted by the European Community as an official support programme. A pilot programme was, however, run by the European Commission during 1996. Under this pilot 43 applications were received in which a UK organisation was the lead partner. Of these, 13 were accepted and awarded a total of 760,291 ecu—£560,562.55. In addition, 43 other UK organisations have benefited from funding under the pilot year in view of their participation in projects in which an organisation from another EC member state was the lead partner. Details of the amount of funding received by UK organisations is not held centrally.
Ariadne is the European Community's proposed support programme in the field of books and reading. Like Raphael, it has yet to be officially adopted by the European Community. A pilot programme was run by the European Commission during 1996. Four UK-led partnerships applied for funding under the pilot programme, of which three were successful and received a total of 68,838.40 ecu—£50,754.55. A further 12 UK organisations were cited as co-organisers of successful projects which received a total of 494,136.48 ecu—£364,326.82. It is not possible to specify the precise amounts which will be received by the UK organisations.
One of the benefits to the UK of the Ariadne programme is the translation of England-language literary works and their dissemination throughout the European Community. Of the 40 projects submitted for consideration under the 1996 pilot which involved English-language works for translation, 21 were successful in receiving funding support.
Kaleidoscope is the European Community cultural support programme and was officially adopted as such in 1996. In this first year, 62 applications were made by UK-led partnerships. Of these, 10 applications were successful and received a total of 425,764.46 ecu—£313,916.13. A further 31 UK organisations were cited as co-organisers of successful projects, which received a total of 1,186,262.80 ecu—£874,631.56. Again, the precise allocation of funding to the UK organisations is not known.