Brussels, 02/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has selected 117 university projects that will receive subsidies under the Jean Monnet Action, which provides support for the teaching of European affairs. These projects will be given effect at the start of the next academic year, with the creation of 47 new "Jean Monnet Professorships", 47 "Jean Monnet modules" and 23 "Jean Monnet poles" in universities in the European Union.
This selection results from the latest call for applications launched under the Jean Monnet action. After ten years of existence, this initiative will have created 538 Jean Monnet Professorships, each corresponding to a full-time post teaching European integration (Community law, European economy, political and historical European integration studies), and 70 "Jean Monnet poles", which, by consolidating all the European studies in a university or region, give greater visibility to available academic resources. "This is a way of contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and leading public debate on European integration", observed a Commission representative. "Nearly 700 universities are now involved and this action annually concerns 250,000 young people in the fifteen EU Member States and three applicant countries, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic".
"The university projects submitted for 2000 (280 in all) were of excellent quality and confirmed the determination of European universities to make a commitment to passing on to the younger generation the message that European construction is not complete, but is in constant movement", commented the European Commissioner for Culture, Mrs Viviane Reding. Of the 117 projects selected, 23 are in Spain, 20 in Italy, 17 in the United Kingdom, 15 in France, 8 in Germany, 7 in Greece, 6 in Belgium, 5 in the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden, 4 in Portugal and 1 in Ireland and in Denmark. The European Commission's overall financial participation in these projects totals around EUR 900,000 a year for three years, but the universities have undertaken to continue their financing for at least another four years (i.e. 7 years in all).
"In the future, the Jean Monnet action will comprise a more intensive dialogue policy, particularly through thematic study groups of Jean Monnet Professors, who for the last ten years have already worked on topical Community subjects such as the euro, the World Trade Organisation, reform of the institutions and the Intergovernmental Conferences of 1996 and 2000", explained a Commission representative. A colloquium will be held in Brussels on 6 and 7 July on the IGC of 2000, as the culmination of study in progress. Around 140 Jean Monnet Professors are expected to debate the sensitive issues of the negotiations under way.