During an event organised with the press as part of the European Youth Week, the Commissioner for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport, Hungarian Tibor Navracsics, defended the Juncker Commission's track record. With regard to youth in particular, he expects the Gothenburg agenda to be pursued and strengthened at the Sibiu Summit. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)
Agence Europe - The Commission today presented its contribution to the Sibiu Summit, which recommends a better approach to teaching about Europe. Will your areas of competence be addressed by the Heads of State on 9 May?
Tibor Navracsics - We are going to have a youth summit on May 8 in Sibiu, just before the adult summit, if I can call it that. So we can listen to the young representatives and collect their opinions and views about the future of Europe, and we can channel it to the discussions of the following days. I’m optimistic, I think that the issue of youth policy, but also the role of education and, probably, culture will be on the table for European leaders. And that the path we started in November 2017 in Gothenburg will be followed (see EUROPE 11907/1).
The European Youth Week highlights the EU's youth programs (i.e. the discoverEU programme, the European Solidarity Corps, Erasmus+ and the Youth Guarantee). In your opinion, is Europe doing enough for young people?
It is a difficult question. What is enough? Of course we would like to see all the young people happy in Europe. But we know that there is still a lot more to do in order to tackle all the problems of discrimination, social marginalisation, intolerance, and all those things. Definitely it’s not enough to make them absolutely happy. But it’s a useful support for them to live their lives.
How do you explain that, among the 2021-2027 programmes, neither the Solidarity Corps nor the Erasmus programme were the subject of interinstitutional negotiations?
As far as I know, the European Parliament didn’t want to set a date for interinstitutional negotiations before the European elections.
Why? Because of the budget negotiations?
I don't know, you have to ask them. But yes, probably. We proposed doubling the budget for this programme: the EU Council supported this idea, and Parliament called for a tripling. I don’t know whether their request will receive the support of the Member States. We will have to see what emerges from the interinstitutional negotiations. I would of course be delighted if the final result was a tripling of the budget.
Sport is also one of your competences. Is there really any need for action by the Commission or should this portfolio be removed in the future?
We have some initiatives which are really meaningful and funded by Erasmus: we have the European Sports Week, which is becoming a really important event in sport policy. Now we have more than 15 million participants all over Europe and we have more than 30 participating countries, which means that this is even broader than the EU itself. And we have some special awards for socially responsible sport activities (for instance, the #BeInclusive or #BeActive activities). All these awards acknowledge the activities and contributions of NGOs at local level who do social integration exercises in sport. I think those are very important. So, yes, this competence needs to be kept by the next Commission.
With regard to culture, France is organising a conference on 3 May to set up a cooperation mechanism for European heritage that is in danger. Do you think there is a need for this?
It is a difficult question. We have some mechanisms for helping Member States in trouble when there is a natural disaster or a fire. We can also help with the European Solidarity Corps so we can mobilise volunteers... We can also launch Creative Europe projects for improving the exchange of experts, expertise or ideas. But more can be done. I understand the French authorities wish to get money or funding more quickly in emergency situations. I can support these ideas, yes. Therefore, such a mechanism for assistance in emergency situations can probably be developed.
At the end of March, the EPP Group in the European Parliament decided to temporarily suspend the participation of Viktor Orbán's party Fidesz, to which you belong. What do you think of that?
I think Fidesz's place is in the EPP. So I hope that we will return to the EPP as soon as possible. And no, I don't think it would be a good idea to join another group.