Mrs Scrivener chairs the meeting of the committee of national coordinators responsible for monitoring the Community plan to help customs agents adjust to the internal market The coordination committee set up after the Council adopted, on 17 December, the ad hoc Regulation on supplementary measures brings together those appointed by the Member States to ensure the proper implementation of Community and national back-up measures to help customs agents adjust to the completion of the internal market on 1 January 1993. Opening the general meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the sector's staff and employers, Mrs Scrivener underlined the scale of the overall package proposed. Approaching ECU 450 million has been earmarked for cofinancing operations in the Community (see also IP(92) 354 and IP(92) 1056). Mrs Scrivener explained that the proposed package offered a full range of measures enabling constructive projects to be implemented at local level. She added that most decisions of principle would be taken at Community and national level. They could not, however, stop there, and an intensive effort would have to be made to keep up the good work. The current priority was to put the finishing touches to applications at local and national level. The funding was available, all that remained was to act without delay. Mrs Scrivener pointed out that the Member States had only three weeks left in which to present to the Commission projects eligible for the ECU 30 million made available by the Regulation. She concluded by saying that the preparation of good projects called for all the different interest groups to be brought together, and that this was the crucial role of the national coordinators. The day's meeting bore witness to the scale of the task. * * *
