The Cohesion Fund made a substantial financial contribution to Spanish transport infrastructure projects, principally road and rail, in line with the objectives of the "Plan Director de Infraestructuras 1993-2007" and the Community's guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (see 2.2.2. above).

Since November 2012, Ms Soewarta has been Head of Unit for Communication in the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), designing and overseeing communication campaigns including the European Year for Development in 2015.

Regrets that it is still difficult for citizens to gain access to information held by EU institutions, the reason being that there is no common approach among the institutions geared to facilitate access to documents for citizens and based on complete transparency, communication and direct democracy; urges the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies to develop further a more proactive approach on transparency by proactively disclosing as many of their documents as possible, in the most simple, user-friendly and accessible way, by having documents translated upon request into other EU official languages, and by establishing proper, ...[+++] simple and inexpensive information access arrangements, including by digital and electronic means, allowing for the needs of people with disabilities; considers, in particular, that the accessibility of information should be improved on by means of easy-to-use interfaces and search systems; calls for the development of a common access point to the portals of the three institutions, building on the pilot project for the online platform for the proactive publication of EU institutions documents, and for harmonising search portals between departments of the same institution (including Directorates-General in the Commission); calls, as well, on the institutions to continue and strengthen the work of expanding knowledge of EU legislation and policies; believes that, to that end, the EU should make full use of the potential offered by new technologies (social networks, smartphone applications, etc.) in order to ensure complete and easy access to information.

The Monitoring Centre's relationships with other Directorates General have developed as the responsibilities of the Community have developed, particularly with the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam.

Today's witnesses are: from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Mr. Terry Henderson, Director General, Claims Implementation Branch, Claims and Indian Government Sector; Mr. Jeff Moore, Director, James Bay Implementation Office, Claims and Indian Government Sector; Mr. Ian Corbin, Acting Director, Community Development Directorate, Social Policy and Programs Branch, Socioeconomic Policy and Programming and Program Re-design Sector; and Mr. Martin ...[+++]Lévesque, Counsel, Legal Services.

Mr. Ian Corbin (Acting Director, Community Development Directorate, Social Policy and Programs Branch, Socioeconomic Policy and Programming and Program Re-design Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development): Housing is a matter of social policy.