Brussels, 09/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU's Education Ministers is meeting in Brussels on Monday, chaired by Sweden's Minister of Education and Sciences, Thomas Ostros, with the participation of the Deputy Minister for Schools and Adult Education Ingegred Warnersson and European Commissioner Vivainae Reding. At this Council, the Fifteen should adopt their report on the "Concrete Future Objectives of Education Systems" in the EU, and have an exchange of views on strategies for lifelong learning, and on the Commission's memorandum on the subject. Ms. Reding will present the evaluation report on the first stage of the Community Leonardo da Vinci action porgramme, brief ministers of the Year of Languages 2001, as well as on the opening of the third phase of the trans-European cooperation scheme for higher education (Tempus III - 2000-2006) to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Finally, the Swedish Presidency will inform ministers of the informal Education/Research meeting to be held from 1 to 3 March in Uppsala, the goal of which being to establish a close link between research and employment, given a certain lack of interest in Europe for scientific careers. Here is an overview of the main topics to be discussed on Monday:
Report on the future concrete objectives of education systems in the EU: as requested by the Lisbon Summit in March 2000, the Education Ministers will begin discussing these objectives and preparing a report that they should adopt, then to hand it to the European Council of Stockholm of 23 and 24 March. This discussion will relate to the strengthening of the role of Education Ministers in the Lisbon Process, and ministers have already defined three goals for the next ten years: improving the quality of education and training systems in the EU; 2) facilitate access for all Union citizens to these systems; 3) open up these systems to the world through the learning of languages, the mobility of persons, the development of a spirit of entrepreneurship and research. The Education Council will discuss means of achieving these objectives (for example, through an exchange of good practice) and how to follow-up the report: should one be submitted each year for a European spring Summit? Or should it be done at regular intervals? Or rather periodically reviewed, within the Education Council, in the framework of the "rolling agenda"? It would seem that Ministers are moving towards a compromise solution, consisting in drawing up such a report at regular intervals.
Strategies for lifelong learning: the Fifteen will have to answer three questioned from the Swedish Presidency: 1) do they agree on the approach to lifelong learning and on the key policy areas suggested by the Commission in its memorandum presented to them last November? (see EUROPE of 15 November, p.12); 2) how could they ensure permeability between the different areas of learning, i.e., between different stages of formal education and training and non-formal and informal learning?; 3) in which areas would national developments particularly benefit from strengthened cooperation at European level?. The Fifteen will also examine the new employment guidelines for 2001, as they come within the scope f a new horizontal objective, lifelong learning, as requested by the Lisbon Summit.