Brussels, 27/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Thursday 22 May, the European Parliament, in adopting the report by Bernard Lehideux (ALDE, France) by 292 votes to 22, with 230 abstentions, called for the European Training Foundation in Turin to be recast. In this, the EP joins the European Commission which proposed to extend the foundation's range of activities to include lifelong learning, and also its geographic range. This would mean that the Foundation could become involved in all EU partner countries, and not just under the neighbourhood policy and pre-accession programmes.
MEPs, however, brought a number of amendments to the Commission proposal, notably to improve relations between decentralised European agencies and the European Parliament, relations which are deemed to be “insufficient”. MEPs believe that they are very often poorly informed of the functions fulfilled by these agencies and what they actually do, says an EP press release.
Parliament also adopted an EPP-ED amendment providing for the Foundation's Governing Board to contain representatives from the member states, according to Lisbon Treaty provisions on the appointment of commissioners, three representatives from the Commission and three experts designated by the European Parliament. This amendment brings into question the previous agreement between the EP and the Council which suggested that these experts should not take part in voting, the EP points out. MEPs also propose that (1) when a new director of the foundation is being appointed, Parliamentary committees should be able to question those on the shortlist of at least three candidates submitted by the European Commission; (2) the director of the foundation should present the foundation's annual report to the relevant EP committees and Council preparatory bodies.
The European Training Foundation is a decentralised EU body, based in Turin. It was established by Council Regulation No. 1360 in 1990 to contribute to the development of the education and training systems of the EU partner countries. (G.B.)