Commission Decision
of 8 February 2007
amending Commission Decision 2005/56/EC setting up the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency for the management of Community action in the fields of education, audio-visual and culture in application of Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2007/114/EC)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes(1), and in particular Article 3(1) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Under Article 4 of Commission Decision 2005/56/EC(2), the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency (hereinafter referred to as the Agency) is responsible for certain tasks relating to the management of Community programmes in the fields of education, audio-visual and culture.
(2) On 31 December 2006 most of the programmes entrusted to the Agency have expired, to be replaced by new programmes covering the period from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013.
(3) The external evaluation carried out in November 2006 by the Commission, in accordance with Article 3(2) of Decision 2005/56/EC, showed that use of the Agency is the best way to manage certain centralised strands of the Community programmes in the fields of education, audio-visual and culture. This evaluation recommended that the Agency’s tasks be extended to include the management of the centralised strands of the new programmes in the fields of education, audio-visual and culture.
(4) In the light of this evaluation, the Agency will be entrusted with not only the management of these new programmes but also the management of projects which, although coming under the Agency's current areas of competence, could be financed by other provisions or resources, i.e. those which could be financed by the Community’s aid to the countries of the western Balkans, the resources of the European Development Fund, certain European neighbourhood and partnership policy instruments, the financing instrument for development cooperation and certain agreements concluded by the Community with third countries in the fields of education, vocational training and youth.
(5) Moreover, the Commission wishes to entrust to the Agency the implementation, at Community level, of the information network on education in Europe (Eurydice) referred to in action 6.1 of the second phase of the Community action programme in the field of education ‘Socrates’ and by the horizontal programme of the action programme in the field of lifelong learning.
(6) Lastly, to ensure the stable and effective management of the new programmes entrusted to the Agency, the Agency’s lifespan should be amended and brought into line with the length of these new programmes. The lifespan of the Agency must also include a phasing-out period of two years relative to the implementation period of these new programmes (2014-2015), so as to allow the Agency to complete the projects selected over the last year of this implementation period.
(7) Decision 2005/56/EC must consequently be amended.
(8) The provisions set out by this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for Executive Agencies,
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: