Brussels, 20/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the European Union will be holding its next “Education, Youth and Culture” session on 23 and 24 May in Brussels, under the chairmanship of Luxembourg ministers Jean-Louis Schiltz, Octavie Modert, Mady Delvaux-Stehres and Marie-Josée Jacobs.
Work will begin on Monday afternoon with a discussion on audiovisual issues. The Council will issue partial general guidelines on the MEDIA programme proposal for 2007-2013 in order to sound out the 25 on actions that, in their view, should be supported within the framework of the programme. Discussions will not tackle the budgetary aspects that depend on the definition of the future Community financial framework (financial perspectives 2007-2013). Ministers will also take stock of the state of progress of work in the various meetings relating to combating incentive to hatred in third country broadcasts.
The Council will then look at themes on culture. It will note the candidatures proposed by the delegations of Luxembourg and the United Kingdom for the members of the jury responsible for designating the next European Culture Capital, members that will be officially appointed by the Council during the second half of this year. Ministers will close the session with an exchange of views on the mobility of museum collections with a view to drawing up an action plan, and on the proposal for a programme on “Citizens for Europe” aimed at promoting active European citizenship for the period 2007-2013 and ensuring the continuity of the current programme on civic participation.
Tuesday will be devoted to education and youth issues. On the “education” dossier, ministers will adopt conclusions on the development of new indicators for education and training, after presentation of the Commission's policy paper on this subject. The Luxembourg Presidency will then brief the Council on the work of a symposium on the potential of multilingualism in teaching and education. Ministers will hold an exchange of views on the proposal for integrated guidelines for growth and employment presented by the Commission on 12 April.
The session will close with the points on youth. Ministers will adopt resolutions on: - actions already carried out thanks to European cooperation on youth, further to application of the open method of coordination which provided a new framework for such cooperation; - the implementation of the common objective to increase youth participation in the representative democratic system. Ministers will invite the Commission, the Member States and the democratic institutions to take initiatives to encourage youth participation, and the implementation of common objectives for youth information to meet their specific needs. Ministers will close their discussions with an exchange of views on the proposals for integrated guidelines for growth and employment, presented by the Commission on 12 April.