Brussels, 27/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The "Vision Group", which met for the first time in Brussels on 19 July, chaired by Jean Germain, Professor at the University of Tours (see EUROPE of 21 July, p.14), discussed a paper drawn up by the French Presidency of the EU Council relating to transnational mobility in the Week of Education. This paper is largely based on draft recommendations made by the European Parliament and Council on abolishing obstacles to mobility in the EU to students, people in training, young volunteers, teachers and trainers, which the European Commission presented in January of this year.
The paper is in fact the first sketch of an action plan relating to mobility, to be presented at the Nice Summit in December. Several delegations within the "Vision Group" drew attention to the need for the plan not serve a dual purpose with the aforementioned draft recommendation. "The action plan must provide something extra, for example regarding good practices", the Commission's spokesperson commented, adding "To do so, the Commission and French Presidency have decided to work together in preparing the next meeting of the Vision Group, to be held in Brussels on 12 September, by redirecting work so as to have two additional documents on mobility. The aim,," the spokesperson recalled, "is to have a plan to submit to the informal Education Council, to be held in Paris on 30 September".
At the end of the meeting, the Commission's representatives said they were very satisfied with the outcome of the talks. "It is important for the Commission that the signal given is that the Community path that we have chosen be safeguarded for the action plan, I.e., that it will not be intergovernmental but Community-guided", the Commission's spokesperson explained.
You may recall, the aforementioned draft recommendation calls on Member States to take concrete measures in view of lifting obstacles to transnational mobility. In the first part, it presents general measures that could be implemented by all he groups concerned: a) information on the possibilities of studying, training, participating in voluntary activities, practicing the teaching or training profession in another Member State; b) financing mobility; c) measures facilitating recognition at its rightful value of experience gained abroad. In the second part, it looks at specific measures for each group (for details, see EUROPE of 10 December 1999, p.10 and 24/25 January, p.13).