Brussels, 02/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of the European Students Information Bureau (ESIB), the first European student conference was held on 28-29 October in Paris under the French Presidency of the European Union, bringing together 300 delegates from 40 European students' unions 'to make their views heard in the current process of constructing a Europe of Education". The students produced a manifesto of proposals that they submitted to the French Education Minister and Acting President of the Council Jack Lang for him to submit it in turn to his EU counterparts at the 9 November Education Council (which will be considering the Commission's Communication on removing obstacles to the free movement of students and is expected to adopt an action plan to accelerate mobility, (see, for example, EUROPE of 30 September, page 15).
At the conference, students expressed their concerns about obtaining greater support and financial aid for mobility and greater power within the European bodies responsible for higher education. Their objective is for access to mobility to be no longer restricted to the elite. Before managing one day to truly harmonise European qualifications, student exchanges are a first step on the road to a common European culture, but these exchanges are still restricted to an elite since Erasmus scholarships only provide Euro 100 a month, which is too low for European students to all be able to make use of them regardless of their social origin.
The French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin welcomed the conference, stressing that students had " a decisive role to play in promoting a stronger and more human Europe".