The European Commission is determined to demonstrate support for the humanities. After having organised a meeting of heads of state and government on the theme of a Social Europe in November 2017, it held its first education summit on 25 January. This summit was attended by 18 ministers and 3 secretaries of state. A second summit is planned for autumn 2019.
Commissioner Tibor Navracsics explained that this meeting should help, “lay the foundations for a solid European education area built on a clear vision that we want to see achieved by 2025”. The meeting, however, only very briefly touched on a very contemporary burning issue, the future of the Erasmus + programme once the United Kingdom has left the European Union and the current financial framework expires.
According to the figures provided by the Commission this conference brought together a total of around 500 participants, who between them made around 50 different contributions. Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom, however, were not represented at a ministerial level.
Skills and values in Europe
All participants highlighted the importance of investing in education. The astronaut from the European Space Agency, Samantha Cristoforetti, opened with a passionate speech on the need to open up to different cultures and pursue dreams through education. The director-general of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, emphasised how important it was for Europe to adapt the content of its education systems and to encourage mobility and promote European values.
Commissioner Navracsics announced a new package of measures for Spring 2018, which would tackle questions of education, nursery school provision and foreign language learning, “So that Europeans speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue", as well as the mutual recognition of university diplomas, in an effort to promote even greater mobility.
Erasmus +: the elephant in the room
The European Commission, however, has increased the number of different initiatives (its most recent package is barely two weeks old - see EUROPE 11941) but it is highly dependent on the goodwill of the member states. This limitation was largely emphasised by the chairperson of the European Parliament's education committee, Petra Kammerevert (S&D, Germany). Given that the role of the EU is to establish common objectives and share good practices, why does it not produce an education pact with common European goals, she asked. The MEP also tackled the most sensitive question in this regard: the financial future of the Erasmus + programme and stated, "We don't need you to underline the added value of an Erasmus +, we need more money”. In this regard, she alluded to the idea of tripling or indeed quadrupling the current budget.
This request was given a very cool response by the Swedish minister, Anna Ekström, who provided a rather confused response but without mentioning that Sweden was in fact a net contributor, “We have to be careful with the way money is used… but if the trend continues we will not have much money to discuss but will at least be able to discuss how it should be spent”. The Swedish government want to see a modern EU- budget. We need to prioritise for example migration, competitiveness and research, within the limit of a restrictive total EU budget. This would imply cuts in agriculture and cohesion policies. (...) There might be reasons to protect the Erasmus+ budget whilst the total EU budget is taken into consideration.
The Danish minister did not appear much more enthusiastic during the press conference either. In response to a question from the European Youth Forum (which would like the Erasmus + budget to be 10 times higher), Merete Riisager indicated that the European system was not just about money but about a common project and therefore managed to avoid answering the question. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)