Brussels, 16/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 July 2008, the French Presidency set out its priorities for the next six months in the domain of culture, broadcasting, education, information, youth and sport to the European Parliament's culture and education committee. The four ministers who had travelled to the EP for the hearing all repeated the same key phrase - increasing mobility, whether in terms of students, teachers, apprentices, young people, artists or cultural works, in order to deal with the challenges of globalisation. The French Presidency has put forward an ambitious work programme for the above-mentioned areas and is intending to push it proactively.
Alongside student mobility, which is crucial to language learning, the mobility of teachers will be one of the priorities of Xavier Darcos, France's national education minister, who would like to establish an Erasmus programme for teachers. Professional training will be another of his priorities, improving the supply of training which should be more accessible and user-friendly for the general public as a whole, and improving recognition of training and qualifications acquired abroad. Discussions will focus on the benefits of the EU's ECVET system of credits for education and professional training and the quality assurance system. In order to develop apprentice mobility to the greatest extent possible, and in order to enable apprentices to follow training courses in other member states, Darcos also suggests considering an Erasmus system for apprentices. The school of the 21st century will be another flagship project, with improvements to be considered in national education systems (boosting the performance of education establishments, integrating disabled pupils, teaching science and multilingualism). The French higher education and research minister, Valerie Pecresse, said that mobility had to become the rule rather than the exception. She wants to go into ways of opening up the Erasmus programme to disadvantaged students and is keen to see the member states adopt the new Erasmus Mundus programme for 2009-2013. Like Darcos, Pecresse said that developing quality assurance would also require the minister's attention, and the EU's “education card” must be made far more legible. The French Presidency is suggesting reflection on an EU university league table to help universities facilitate recognition of degrees and establish partnerships. Lifelong education in universities will also be on the programme of the French culture and communications minister, Christine Albanel. One of her key priorities will be making the most of, and promoting access to, European heritage for EU citizens. She is also planning on suggesting the creation in the next six months of a “European heritage label” for cultural goods and historic places. The label will help people identify common European heritage. The minister will also act to get an EU digital library, Europeana, set up. It will be launched at the Education, Youth and Culture Council in Brussels on 20 November 2008. Combatting illegal trade in cultural works and promoting cultural creation in the digital age will also be on the menu, focussing on distributing creative content online, and preventing and tackling the pirating of creative works online. The minister wants there to be a dialogue and exchange of best practice to decide how to tackle pirating at EU level. Promotion of intercultural dialogue and cultural and linguistic diversity are also on the agenda, as is the mobility of cultural works. A European Multilingualism Forum will be held in Paris on 26 September 2008 to examine ways of strengthening cultural exchanges and the circulation of cultural works in Europe, through translation. In terms of sport, football will be the main focus. The French sports minister, Bernard Laporte, will staunchly defend FIFA's recommended 6+5 rule (no more than 5 foreign players in a team and 6 nationals) on the grounds of sport being an exception to EU non-discrimination rules. Improving anti-doping measures will be another French Presidency priority for sport. In terms of youth policy, Laporte wants to extend transnational cooperation in health and wellbeing for young people through the exchange of best practice and will ask the member states to consider ways of creating a European area of young volunteers by making them more mobile.
MEPs' questions revealed particular interest in the mobility of football players - Manolis Mavrommatis (EPP-ED, Greece), Christopher Heaton-Harris (EPP-ED, UK), Ivo Belet (EPP-ED, Belgium); protecting and promoting cultural heritage and diversity - Ljudmila Novak (EPP-ED, Slovenia), Christa Prets (PES, Austria), Ruth Hieronymi (EPP-ED, Germany); student and apprentice mobility - Christa Prets, Doris Pack (EPP-ED, Germany), Claire Gibault (ALDE, France); multilingualism - Ewa Tomaszewska (GUE/NGL, Poland), Mikel Irujo Amezaga (Greens/EFA, Spain). (I.L./transl.fl)