Brussels, 18/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Last Thursday, the European Parliament adopted at first reading the report by Ljudmila Novak (EPP-Ed, Slovenia) on the quality of higher education, amending the European Commission's proposal of 30 September 2004. In so doing, MEPs state their agreement for consolidating the next stage towards mutual recognition of systems to guarantee and assess the quality of higher education in Europe, via agencies for this purpose. The Parliament agrees with the Commission that “it is still necessary to improve the performance of higher education in Europe”, especially when it comes to quality. It considers, however, that the Member States should restrict themselves to encouraging this kind of assessment, while the Commission suggested making it a requirement that all the agencies should carry out independent assessments. The agencies, for their part, should refer to common characteristics for ensuring quality, in conformity with the decision taken by education ministers in Bergen on 20 May this year with a view to protecting and promoting innovative diversity. Furthermore, MEPs trust that the European register of quality guarantee and accreditation agencies will be set in place on the basis of a national assessment. In addition to the agencies and universities foreseen by the Commission, they hope the representatives of national administrations and social partners will be involved in the process. The Parliament's recommendation comes within the extension of another recommendation on European cooperation aimed at ensuring quality in higher education and adopted in 1998. Both tend to favour mutual recognition of quality guarantee and assessment systems in Europe.