Brussels, 09/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of Commissioner Viviane Reding, on Tuesday in Strasbourg the European Commission adopted two communications entitled "The new generation of education and training programmes" and "Citizenship in action". These communications detail the broad outlines of the future programmes to replace the current Community programmes Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Tempus, Jeunesse, Culture 2000 and Media Plus, as of 2007. These communications also subscribe to the prolongation of the Commission's communication of 10 February on the financial perspectives, and do not pre-judge the final content of the legislative proposals to be adopted in early summer, notably on the financial aspects, said Frédéric Vincent, Ms Reding's spokesperson in a press release, adding that these programmes will also help with the achievement of the Lisbon objectives.
The communication on the "new generation of education and training programmes", which was announced by Irish Minister for Science and Education, Noel Dempsey, at the Education Council of 26 February in Brussels (see EUROPE of 27 February, p.10), sets ambitious objectives, which are: 1) ensuring a succession to the current programmes in 2007, supporting mobility and co-operation in the field of education (Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci) and to the external co-operation programme (Tempus); 2) bring in a single integrated programme on education and lifelong training. This programme will be available to Member States on the enlarged EU and EFTA, and comprises education and vocational training, from primary level to adult education. This integrated programme will be more flexible and easier to access, and will be strongly founded on decentralisation (80% of funds are managed by national agencies in the participant countries, said the spokesperson). In order to monitor the scope of what could be achieved, the Commission has set a few quantifiable objectives: at least 10% of secondary school pupils (compared to 3% today) in the EU and their teachers will take part in the Comenius programme between 2007 and 2013; - 3 million students to have benefited from Erasmus is the goal by 2010, three times the 120,000 students taking part in the programme at the moment; -at least 150,000 persons a year (compared to 450,000 today) should benefit from the Leonardo programme by 2013; -at least 500,000 adults a year should benefit from education or training abroad by 2013; 3) a new programme, Tempus Plus (school, university and adult education, vocational training) will focus on co-operation between Member States, the neighbouring States of the EU and those already taking part in Tempus. The mobility objective will be 100,000 persons having benefited from a Tempus Plus mobility action by 2013, according to the spokesperson.
The communication on "Citizenship in Action" presents four planks of the action for citizenship in the Union: 1) Jeunesse: the programme will exploit the opportunities belonging to the EU offers young people from 13 to 30, and will be managed decentrally and offer actions such as European voluntary service (for which 100,000 volunteers a year are expected), or Jeunesse pour le monde; 2) Culture: the future programme will be centred around encouraging the cross-border mobility of professionals in the cultural sector, the cross-border movement of works (including non-material works) and the development of intercultural dialogue. Among the quantifiable objectives proposed, the spokesperson announced annual support to some 50 pan-European cultural networks or organisations and the funding, for the post-2006 period, of some 1,400 cultural co-operation projects in the enlarged EU; 3) Media: the role of promoting European cultural diversity in its audiovisual aspects is to be covered by the new programme. The circulation of European audio-visual works in the EU will also be extended, increasing the proportion of European films distributed outside their country of production from 11% to 20%, for example, and also to improve the competitiveness of the audiovisual sector in order to facilitate citizens' access to European culture; 4) civil participation: the programme is aimed at civil society players (NGOs), social players, supporting town twinning amongst other things, noted the spokesperson.
Once these communications are adopted, "which concern all Europeans, from their schooling to their life as a citizen", Ms Viviane Reding pointed out that "issues related to education and citizenship will be among the major stakes of the decade to come". She added: "in a Union which will have nearly 500 million inhabitants in 2007, giving them the means to exploit the full potential of their cultural membership of an entire range will involve the mobilisation of all tools and programmes available to us".