Brussels, 10/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - France's minister for higher education and research, Geneviève Fioraso, was at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels on Wednesday 9 January. While there, she met several MEPs, including the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on education and culture (CULT), Doris Pack. The aim of her visit was to highlight France's resolve to enhance its presence as part of the construction of a Europe of higher education and research and to make clear France's position on the prospects and the programmes under debate at the EP - Erasmus for All and Horizon 2020.
Fioraso requested that the name “Erasmus for All” be kept for the new European programme. This was proposed by the European Commission but received a cool welcome from Parliament which, at the initiative of the rapporteur, Doris Pack, prefers the name “YES Europe”. Fioraso said it was out of the question to change this European label, and that she was backed on this by the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden and Denmark. The minister also called for the programme to be more democratic and for greater access to be given to students in the professional and technological branches and to the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region. “A typical Erasmus student is a third-year undergraduate with at least one parent who has received higher education and who has a family that is quite well off. I would like to make Erasmus more democratic” (our translation throughout), Fioraso said. In the context of the debates underway on the funding of the programme, the minister spoke of France's reservation about a system that guarantees student loans, in the hope that such a scheme would remain experimental and limited in its share of the budget. “We are opposed to the idea of developing a system of loans for doctorates, as the Commission advocates. This could result in over-indebtedness. We do not want more than 2% in loans, and this must be experimental”, Fioraso said, adding that the period of loan reimbursement should be extended as “one year is too discouraging for young people from modest backgrounds”. During its last meeting on education on 27 November, the European Council had been content to take stock of the situation pending the CULT committee's stance that same day (see EUROPE10738 and 10740). Discussions should now be moving forward under Irish Presidency of the EU Council and a plenary vote is expected at the EP early 2013. Negotiations will then begin between the two institutions and Ireland hopes to reach an agreement with Parliament during its presidency. (IL/transl.jl)