Brussels, 28/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Irish ministers for culture, Jimmy Deenihan, and training, Ciaran Cannon, are confident about the progress of discussions at the European Council on the new programmes for education and youth (Erasmus for All) and culture and audiovisual (Creative Europe) so that an agreement can be quickly reached with the European Parliament. The ministers came to the Parliament last week to set out their priorities on education and culture.
With regard to Creative Europe, the Council will adopt a position on the amendments submitted by the Parliament's education and culture committee on 17 December at the vote on the report by Silvia Costa (S&D, Italy). In Deenihan's view, the ongoing discussions show that they do not diverge so much from the opinion of the Council. He says that, even if some points still need a solution, this will be achieved in the coming months. Deenihan stressed the importance of a guarantee mechanism which should facilitate loans from financial institutions for creative businesses. “The Parliament and the Council share the same concerns, in other words to achieve the (fixed) objectives, guided by the same principles: safeguarding culture and creation, and safeguarding cultural and linguistic diversity (…) and to allow the growth of creative industries (…) In spite of the differences, we will have a solution so that the programme can be adopted in time.” With regard to the budget, although there is hope for an agreement on the multiannual financial framework for February, Deenihan believes that the projected budget (€1.9 billion) “seems to be reasonable” even if it is well known that Europe must tighten its belt. “We hope that creativity will be recognised”, he said. With regard to the new programme, Europe for Citizens, Deenihan said that they needed to tackle the technical aspects and added that Germany, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic should still carry out some adjustments before the start of the programme. On this too, “the Council and the Parliament seem to have the same concerns”, and once the differences in opinion have been ironed out on the legal basis of the programme, an agreement between the two institutions should not pose any problem. With regard to the Erasmus for All programme, Cannon recalled that the Council had reached an agreement on a general approach. The ministers proposed a distinct chapter for youth with a separate budget, which is similar to what the Parliament is proposing, Cannon was pleased to say. Given the atmosphere of cooperation that prevails, Cannon believes that it is not “unreasonable to reach an agreement relatively quickly”. Although many MEPs spoke of their fears of seeing the budget for education and youth shaved down, Cannon promised that the Irish ministers supported a budget which favours job creation and he added that Ireland will play a constructive role. In conclusion, the chair of the Parliament's education and culture committee, Doris Pack (EPP, Germany), who is also the rapporteur on Erasmus for All, said that they needed to take German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande at their word when they recently stated with a single voice that it was necessary to take education and training into account and to finance them. “Export this slogan!” she told the Irish ministers. “What we want is not excessive. We need to obtain this budget. I hope that good sense will prevail”, she concluded. (IL/transl.fl)