Brussels, 05/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is currently examining a draft communication on the fight against the radicalisation of young people. This text could be presented this coming spring and draws from the Paris Declaration, adopted in March 2015, following the attacks made on the editorial office of a Parisian satirical magazine and cultural centre and a synagogue in Copenhagen. 26 Ministers for Education made a solemn commitment to cooperate in an effort to ensure that children and young adults acquire social, civic and intercultural skills and that their critical faculties, particularly with regard to the Internet, are strengthened.
The future communication, however, will not be introducing any new instruments. According to a source from the Commission, it will focus more on existing European initiatives that help provide support to member states on the ground. In the firing line will be the famous Erasmus + programme for education, training, youth and sport. This will have a total budget of €14.7 billion for the 2014-20 period. This EU fund will help support projects by enhancing inclusion and tackling the root causes of radicalisation, explained the European Commission. It will not just be offering exchanges abroad but will also provide funding to help institutions and other educational partners pool their resources. It will, for example, be promoting the eTwinning initiative to help teachers and their pupils carry out virtual interdisciplinary projects. This platform supports cooperative projects involving 40% of EU schools and connects up 300,000 teachers. It has already provided support to 13,200 projects involved in the promotion of tolerance and intercultural understanding, boasts the Commission. The latter is also expected to highlight added value in its document on exchanges of good practices in the context of the Education and Training 2020 (ET2020) framework programme. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)