Brussels, 04/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - During the informal meeting on 30 September in Paris under the Presidency of Jack Lang (see EUROPE of 30 September, p.15), the Education Ministers from the EU 15 agreed to support the idea of the action plan for mobility (APM) proposed by the Council Presidency and the European Commission, and more precisely over certain specific points such as: certification (that is to say labelling the very successful projects, which enable to attract local and private investors), the creation of a common portal for access to various sources of European information on mobility, the teaching of languages, the integration of a "mobility" section in the training of education personnel.
The Minister also felt that: 1) the APM should concentrate not only on students teachers and interns, but also researchers, 2) the APM should not be accompanied by a binding timetable for its implementation, but be a "tool box" to serve people wanting to take advantage of mobility in Europe. Differences have appeared between certain delegations over this issue: Germany and the United Kingdom do not want a binding timetable, the first because it is a Federal State and must take into account the powers of the Lander, the second because it fears to much inflexibility from the Community level in its national training and education policy, 3) the financing of measures foreseen by the APM will mainly lie with the competence of Member States, 4) the APM is complementary with the recommendation underway for the adoption on the suppression of obstacles to mobility: in fact, it would only be possible to promote mobility with the APM if the barriers in fields such as taxation and social protection disappear.
Considering "the climate of this meeting to be very consensual", Commissioner Viviane Reding insisted for the APM not to foresee any new structures, but to be an operational instrument. It insisted on the idea of labelling the good practices noted in the Member States to encourage mobility and on those of the APM as being "one of the two side of the same coin" (the other side being the Commission recommendation on the removal of obstacles to mobility).
The APM would now be reworked in detail by the Education Committee in view of its adoption in the form of a resolution during the Council next 9 November. What mainly remains to be discussed is: the timetable for the implementation (non binding), the assertion of the right to mobility for students and teachers, everything linked to taxation, social security etc. A pamphlet on good practices in the field of mobility will be presented during the European Summit in Nice.