Brussels, 04/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Following its rapporteur Doris Pack (German Social Democrat) last Thursday, the European Parliament welcomed the measures adopted by the Commission to improve the monitoring and assessment of the Socrates education programme (the second phase, from 2002 to the end of 2006, has a budget of EUR 1850 million), but noted delays in the signing of contracts between the Commission and national agencies and in the payment of grants. It called on the Commission to promote dialogue with students, where the latter can provide information about the problems they come across in their study trip abroad. During the debate on Thursday morning, Doris Pack put the spotlight on the scale of the various programmes over the years. Some 31 countries were involved in Erasmus (higher education) that covered 2000 universities, 40,000 lecturers and 460,000 students; while Comenius (school education) covered 15,000 schools and around 2 million pupils. Ms Pack criticised various shortcomings, however, and raised the issue of finance, which should be increased in the run-up to enlargement, she argued. Commissioner Viviane Reding was in full agreement and told MEPs that she knew they would help her when she asks Finance Ministers to give more money.