Brussels, 16/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 15 November, the education ministers of the EU adopted a political agreement on the integrated life-long education programme, at a meeting attended by Commissioner Jan Figel. This agreement remains partial due to the absence of a decision on the financial perspectives 2007-2013 and, therefore, on the budget to be allocated to the programme (under the Commission's proposal, this will be 13.620 billion EUR). A few delegations entered reservations into certain aspects of the text proposed by the Commission, the option for the ministers to act as national agencies and the application of the comitology procedure to the selection of projects. On this first point, with a view to ensuring transparency, the Commission has called for the ministers not to be able to be appointed as agencies. Luxembourg regrets this position, but bent "to the wisdom of the Commission and of this Council". On the second point, France, Portugal and Italy felt that the Member States should continue to be involved in the project selection procedures. In order to simplify the procedure as recommended by the Pack report, which was adopted at first reading by the European Parliament on 25 October, but also by the Council itself in May 2004, as Commissioner Figel explained, the Commission proposed to limit the intervention of the Member States in order to shorten the lead time for candidates to obtain their funding (between two and three months compared to seven currently). The UK Presidency, which is represented by education Minister Ruth Kelly, proposed that the selection of projects for a million EUR or more be dealt with by management committee (and thus with the involvement of the Member States), which was enough to allow these three countries to lift their reservations. The Commission, which feels that the involvement of the Member States in the selection procedure is unjustified, agreed to the British compromise, but with the rider that it wishes to return to the matter at the second reading of the Parliament. "At Hampton Court, the Council reiterated concerns about better regulation. This calls for sacrifices in terms of powers and control", Mr Figel pointed out.
The ministers also adopted a resolution on the mobilisation of brains in Europe in order to allow universities to make their full contribution to the Lisbon strategy, further to the communication of the Commission stressing how far the EU is lagging behind the United States (see EUROPE 8933). They also held an exchange of views on a joint report 2006 on the working programme "Education and Training 2010", on which the Commission has sent its conclusions to the Council (see EUROPE 9066). On this occasion, the ministers discussed priorities for the first phase of this programme, ahead of the adoption of the 2006 report next February. The discussion showed unanimity among the Member States on the Commission's conclusions, particularly as they related to the need to speed up reform, and all spoke out in favour of the proposed benchmarks. Most Member States took pains to explain the situation in their country; the Nordic countries confirmed that they are going in the right direction, with Slovenia as model pupil.