Brussels, 02/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU has five main priorities for education, culture and youth for the next six months, namely: 1) Further development of European cooperation in education. This largely involves discussing solutions to common challenges and problems and exchanging information and good practice. Under the priorities of “Education and Training 2020,” the Presidency will prioritise issues concerning the professional development of teachers and the role and responsibilities of school management in achieving this; 2) Improving cooperation between education, research and innovation. The focus will be on the role of higher education institutions in increasing coordination in the knowledge triangle. Member States will have to continue to modernise their universities, which will have to provide high quality education; 3) Drawing attention to the conditions for migrants to succeed in society through decent education. Debate will be launched during the Swedish Presidency on several important issues relating to education and the integration of immigrants into society; 4) Reaching agreement on the direction of future European cooperation in the area of youth. With the present demographic developments, the proportion of young people is expected to decline in the coming decades. Young people's participation in education, the labour market and society is therefore the key not only to their development as individuals, but also to sustainable development and growth in Europe. The most important issue during the Swedish Presidency is to determine a framework with new common goals and priorities for youth policy cooperation in the EU from 2010; 5) Encouraging and supporting children's and young people's access to culture and media and their opportunities to develop their own creativity. The greatest challenge in the years to come will be encouraging children's and young people's creativity and giving them greater access to new technology and culture. Given the rapid development of new media and forms of cultural expression, Europeans (particularly children and young people) will require greater skills to use and manipulate the new media. The Swedish Presidency will work on drawing up an approach to creativity among children and young people to ensure better access to culture and the right to personal cultural creation, and will stress the importance of culture in the development of society in general. The Swedish Presidency's aim is to help promote a creative generation and highlight the need for culture at school, the potential of new media and the related challenges. (I.L./transl.fl)