Brussels, 17/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - During an official visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories this week, EU Education and Training Commissioner Jan Figel signed a joint statement with Israeli education minister, Yuli Tamir, marking the start of political dialogue between the EU and Israel on education issues, explained the European Commission in a press release. Regular exchanges will be organised on issues of common interest like the updating of higher education, the Bologna Process, aspects of professional training covered by the Copenhagen Process, lifelong learning, school twinning, language study, ways of promoting the transferability and recognition of qualifications and the results of formal and informal training. Figel and Tamir will also work together to boost cooperation between EU and Israeli universities to increase mobility and exchanges among students and lectures under the EU's Erasmus Mundus and Tempus programmes. The statement responds to the objectives set out in the 2005 EU-Israel action plan to gradually bring Israel on board in EU policies and programmes as part of the EU's Neighbourhood Policy, which foresees a series of concrete measures in terms of education.
Commissioner Figel opened a National Tempus Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, and re-opened the National Tempus Office in Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The office in Jerusalem is the first of its kind in Israel to have joined the fourth round of the Tempus programme (2007-2013).
Under the first Tempus IV invitation to submit projects for support, 8 Israeli institutions were involved as partners in submitted projects and there were 2 projects in which institutions from Israel were involved as coordinators. In Ramallah, the commissioner re-opened an existing office. Palestinian involvement in Tempus dates back to 2002 and most Palestinian higher education establishments have participated in Tempus through 11 joint EU projects and three structural measures. (I.L./transl.fl)