Brussels, 03/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - In the sphere of education and training, Europe can boast of its centuries-old tradition of top-level achievement - as can North America and Asia also. In order to maintain a competitive level in these fields, the German EU Council Presidency takes the view that “Europeans must focus more strongly on networking and pooling their skills” as “the creation of a Europe of knowledge remains our common goal”.
The Presidency, which sees education as the key to social cohesion within the EU and as a catalyst for European integration, will strive to implement the Education and Training 2010 Work Programme in force until 2010. With the introduction of a European Qualifications Framework, Germany plans to facilitate comparison of vocational skills and thus increase mobility within Europe. Work on adult education and on a system of indicators for the education sector and education research is also being driven forward. Germany will join forces with the Commission to organise the Launch Conference for the Programme for Lifelong Learning.
Finally, in the context of the Bologna process, a ministerial conference will perform a critical appraisal of the recognition of final qualifications, course structures and quality assurance and decide what the next steps should be. Germany will transform the decisions on vocational training taken during the Finnish Presidency in the course of the Bruges-Copenhagen process into concrete measures. (ol)