Brussels, 19/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, Luxembourg's education, youth and culture ministers outlined the Luxembourg Presidency's priorities for the next six months in these areas to the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee.
Youth. Pointing out that broad agreement was reached at the November 2004 Council meeting concerning the Youth In Action programme, Luxembourg's family and integration minister, Marie-Josee Jacobs, said she would be trying to make further progress in this area but it would not be possible to finalise it during the Luxembourg Presidency before agreement is reached on the Financial Perspectives 2007-2013. The Luxembourg Presidency will suggest adopting resolution on new perspectives for consulting young people (participation in consultative democracy) and awareness raising campaigns for young people to prepare them for their role as citizens. She welcomed the joint French, German, Spanish and Swedish governments' European Youth Pact to get young people more involved in the Lisbon Process, saying that young people often lacked confidence and thought the EU was no more than an economic and monetary union. Jacobs mentioned a conference to be held on 23-26 April where more than 100 young people will make recommendations to those responsible for young people in the Member States. German Social-Democrat Lissy Groner lamented the restrictions imposed by the budget and said the Council had to be encouraged to take action. British Conservative Christopher Beazley wondered whether national youth initiatives would have the desired attention at European level.
Education. Mady Delvaux Stehres, Luxembourg's education and professional training minister, said that every country has its own traditions, but she wanted to concentrate on social cohesion, mobility and multilingualism under the slogan 'Learn more languages to learn the same language'. A conference is being held in Luxembourg in March on multilingualism, she said, adding that multilingual education might be one way of making schools more diversified. She also announced a forum on social cohesion and citizenship entitled 'We are Europe' to focus on multicultural citizenship. Austrian Social-Democrat Christa Prets said urgent reforms were required to raise quality in education, failing which the Lisbon Targets could not be achieved. CDU MEP Doris Pack suggested highlighting in meetings with her counterparts the multilingual nature of the Luxembourg education system. She stressed the importance of teacher exchanges in cross-border regions. Erna Hennicot-Schoepges (EPP, Luxembourg) raised the issue of the difficult transfer of educational grants. Finnish Liberal Hannu Takkula said that education systems varied widely from one Member State to the next and wondered whether the EU should coordinate the different systems. Delvaux Stehres replied that the soul should not be sucked from the school system, and what is best about each system should be left.
Culture. The Luxembourg Presidency's programme for culture was explained at length by Luxembourg's culture, higher education and research minister, Octavie Modert, accompanied by Francois Biltgen, Luxembourg's higher education, culture, research and employment minister. Modert said the Luxembourg Presidency wanted to achieve political consensus over Culture 2007 so it can be adopted as soon as possible once the Financial Perspectives have been approved. The Luxembourg Presidency will organise debates on the designation of European Culture Capital 2009, which the new Member States will be participating in. Manolis Mavrommatis (EPP-ED, Greece) called for greater controls on the use of public money for Culture Capitals. Modert also talked about creativity and the culture industry, the mobility of artists and their works and the adoption of a modus operandi drafted by the European Commission as part of the UNESCO negotiations over a Cultural Diversity Charter. Erna Hennicot-Schoepges seized the opportunity to criticise the precarious salaries various artists had to contend with, being paid less than the organisers of cultural events. She said efforts had to be made at a fiscal level too. French ALDE MEP Claire Gibault argued against the future Services Directive applying to culture in any way, adding that the draft Bolkestein Directive would jeopardise artists' terms and conditions. Biltgen said that the directive was a long way off yet and the Luxembourg Presidency would attempt to hold an objective debate over this issue.