Brussels, 25/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 January, the Hungarian Presidency presented its programme on education, sport, culture and audiovisual issues to the European Parliament. Although MEPs did not get beyond the programme presented by ministers responsible for sport and education, in their questions, they did not spare the minister in charge of cultural and audiovisual issues with regard to the media law on which the European Union is demanding further clarification (see other article).
Sport. The Hungarian Presidency will continue the work of the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies on sport, announced the minister responsible for sport, Attila Czene. This will involve coordinating European-wide action, which will help provide added value at national levels. The minister explained that he wanted sport to be the subject of a European programme in its own right for the period 2014-2020. Nonetheless, he bitterly regretted the lack of financial resources planned for this new Community area of competency and declared “a programme is required, despite the crisis, as well as the use of structural funds”. The Commission communication recently presented by Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou will provide the basis of a resolution that the Council will adopt in May, in an effort to develop a framework for cooperation, priorities and a future work plan, added Czene.
In their questions, MEPs gave a warm welcome to the idea of setting up a programme on sport and sharply criticised the absence of any financial framework for this sector. “It is a shame that sport is not included in the European budget”, regretted László Tökés (EPP, Romania). Santiago Fisas Ayxela (EPP, Spain) said that “it goes in the opposite direction to how sport is promoted in the Lisbon Treaty”. Helga Trüpel (Greens/EFA, Germany) said that this “does not correspond to new competences”. Hannu Takkula (ALDE, Finland) pointed out that for every euro invested in sport, two euros are saved in social services.
Education. Education Minister Rózsa Hoffman, outlined four major priorities for this sector. The first aim is to attain the EUROPE 2020 strategy objectives on education and training: action outlines are required for increasing the number of university or higher education graduates. The second priority consists of improving education from kindergarten onwards. This objective is directly linked to the first because going to nursery school enables very young children to acquire their educational foundations and helps encourage them to prolong their studies. The European Commission will publish a communication at the end of February on the subject, which will help the work of the Hungarian Presidency, declared Hoffman. The third priority of the Hungarian Presidency is to combat early school leaving. This problem particularly affects the most disadvantaged classes in society, such as immigrants and the Roma. The Hungarian minister is seeking to establish a programme on this issue and intends to adopt a recommendation by the Council during its presidency. She explained that they wanted to reach a 20% mobility target. Hoffman said that more emphasis should be put on developing individual talent and creativity and that therefore she hoped to adopt a recommendation for creating a European Talent Day.
In her contribution, Maria Badia i Cutchet (S&D, Spain) highlighted the necessity of coordinating efforts made to increase the number of university graduates, by cooperating with companies so that there was an optimum correlation between supply and demand. With regard to the subject of early school leaving, Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid (EPP, France) referred to the very different systems that exist in the member states. Marco Scurria (EPP, Italy) asked whether Hungary had planned concrete initiatives to counter the phenomenon of early school leaving. Badia i Cutchet and Mary Honeyball (S&D, United Kingdom) looked at the issue of language learning, whilst László Tökés (EPP, Romania) asked for more action to be taken to help Eastern Europe catch up with western Europe in the education field. Jean-Marie Cavada (EPP, France) asked about the possibility of giving nomadic Roma communities a European nomad status, which would grant them rights and responsibilities adapted to their way of life. On this very specific subject, Rózsa Hoffman explained that a particular department was specifically working on the inclusion of Roma into society and explained that this was a social problem and not about belonging to an ethnic group.
Culture and audiovisual affairs. Géza Szöcs, the Hungarian minister of state, presented the Hungarian Presidency's priorities on cultural and audiovisual matters and explained the country's work programme. There were a number of tough questions on the Hungarian media law. The Hungarian Presidency will develop three priorities in the cultural arena. The first is the adoption of a political agreement on the European Heritage label. The second will focus on culture in the EUROPE 2020 strategy. Hungary is seeking to identify measures in this connection, in an effort to develop sufficient funding for the next framework programme. It is also hoping to adopt conclusions at the Council in May, on three aspects of cultural policy: the economic potential of culture, its ability to enhance social cohesion and contribute to developing the knowledge-based society. The Hungarian Presidency's third objective is promoting the mobility of artists and cultural actors. In the audiovisual field, Géza Szöcs said that he was interested in the report made by the wise men on the European Digital library, which would be useful for developing future recommendations. The audiovisual work programme will also be based on two priorities. The first seeks to protect minors in the online environment. The Hungarian Presidency is seeking to adopt conclusions on this subject. The second priority involves managing online cultural content. Szöcs affirmed that it is important to remove any barriers impeding the creation of a single digital market. He also said that the Commission's Green Paper on creative content expected this year would be very useful. He added that solutions needed to be found that guaranteed content choice to users and fair returns for creators.
In their questions, several MEPs denounced the media law and alluded to the rise in anti-Semitism in Hungary. Jean-Marie Cavada and Petra Kammerevert (S&D, Germany) declared that Europe is concerned about this law and its impact on cultural diversity. Helga Trüpel expressed concerns about the attacks on freedom and the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Hungary. The harshest words came from the Austrian Non-Attached MEP, Hans-Peter Martin, who said that Hungary was behaving arrogantly and was answering this question “in a similar way to how China answered questions about human rights”. This particularly angered Zoltán Bágo (EPP, Hungary) and László Tökés. In reply to MEPs, Géza Szöcs explained that “these concerns cannot be justified by political attacks and attacks in the media, which Hungary has been subject to”. He did not provide any further explanation and said that this was not part of his remit. Hannu Takkula said that anti-Semitism is not the exclusive preserve of Hungary and that this polemic conceals the good programme proposed by the Presidency. In conclusion, the chair of the education and culture committee, Doris Pack (EPP, Germany) also regretted some of the outbursts that had occurred. She said that no one had posed so many specific questions to other presidencies about their media laws and indicated to Takkula that the question of rising anti-Semitism was a scourge affecting a number of European countries. (I.L./transl.fl)