Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-13-Speech-1-122"
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"en.19991213.5.1-122"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to see that after so many months of discussion and struggle Socrates has finally become a reality.
Furthermore, the two programmes form an integral part of the citizens’ Europe since they enable the young people of Europe to gain experiences which make Europe a practical proposition and which engender their confidence. Indeed, when one is in contact with schools, whether primary schools or universities, it can be seen that the European educational area is a reality, whatever some ministers say. There is thus no need to quibble about terms, since reality tells us that this European educational area already exists in practical everyday terms. And there is something I must tell you, ladies and gentlemen. This morning, I attended the opening of the academic year at the University of Turin. Well, I was impressed. Every year, 600 students from the University of Turin are enabled to travel. Since Socrates does not allocate sufficient funds, it is the University of Turin itself, even though it has scarcely adequate resources, Mr President, which subsidises their travel. All this is achieved because there are intelligent men and women who have quite simply understood that we shall not build the Europe of tomorrow without the contribution of young people who have had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with other cultures and other educational systems. As I said in Turin, a city which is built on two rivers crossed by many bridges, I see myself as a builder of bridges.
May I request your assistance so that together we may manage to build bridges between the educational systems of our various countries, as well as between these and the systems of other nations, so that many more students than in the past may cross these bridges and enter into the Europe of knowledge? Mr President, and this will be my final remark as I know that you are very quick to wield the gavel, it should not be forgotten that education is not the only issue involved. Culture is important as well. Culture requires knowledge, and knowledge of others means not being afraid. The lack of fear forms an extraordinary defence against exclusion, xenophobia, and the rejection of aliens. What we are involved in here is a truly European endeavour, perhaps the finest and greatest in terms of the success it may achieve.
The fact, ladies and gentlemen, that we have not obtained all the money we wanted, is not, I feel, so important. The important thing is to replace the lack of money with intelligence and innovation, with fresh ideas. If you have ideas, please help me out and pass them on to me. We are going to endeavour to include new ideas in this new programme available to us and available to the youth of Europe, so that young people may become what we all would like to see: the Europeans of tomorrow.
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As Mrs Pack explained so well in her speech, we have arrived at an agreement which is for all of us, as the Members of Parliament have said so clearly, a cornerstone in the construction of the citizens’ Europe.
The agreement between Parliament and the Council was reached following a difficult, and indeed, even arduous, conciliation procedure, but, problems aside, it can be said that a successful outcome was reached and that is what counts. In this respect, I am pleased to see the constructive spirit in which negotiations on this programme were held. We have come a very long way since the Commission presented its initial proposal in May 1998. I would like to express my thanks for all this work. First and foremost to your rapporteur, Mrs Pack, of course. The quality of her work is widely acknowledged, especially among those who have had seats in this Parliament for any length of time, and indeed this is not her first report on Socrates, which is her baby to some extent. She was actually the rapporteur in 1994 on the first Socrates programme, and also on the budget review in 1997.
It is no exaggeration to say that thanks to you, Mrs Pack, thanks to your own personal commitment, Community education policy has been able to make extraordinary progress over the last five years. I feel that it is not the Members of Parliament or the Commission who should be thanking you, but rather that the young people, the youth of Europe will thank you, and their thanks will be the greatest you can receive.
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Mr President, I should also like to thank your fellow Member, Vice-President Imbeni, who headed the Parliament delegation during the conciliation process, and that was not always an easy assignment with discussions lasting until half past three in the morning. It was no picnic, but Mr Imbeni managed, in his own inimitable, elegant Italian style, to stop the project being scuppered, and for this I am grateful to him.
I would next like to tell the PPE-DE Group that my thanks go to the chairman of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport, Mr Gargani, who contributed greatly to the positive outcome of the conciliation process. I should also like to thank Mrs Prets for the quality of her work as shadow rapporteur. I should finally like to address the Council Presidency, since my fellow Minister who was Council President had no easy task. She would have gone further herself, but unfortunately she was surrounded by ministers who did not wish to do so. So please express my thanks to her for her courage and commitment.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the two action programmes – grouping together Socrates and Leonardo which was approved last April – constitute an integrated package of measures intended to promote lifelong training. These two programmes will be resourced by a total of EUR 3,000 million for the period 2000 to 2006. I prefer to group the two programmes together so as to increase the total appropriation somewhat. Our intentions have quite simply been frustrated: we would have liked to allocate more money to young people, but with reality, or
being what it is, we have still managed to obtain, as the Members of Parliament have stated so clearly, a perceptible advance.
The fundamental objective shared by both programmes is to contribute to the gradual construction of a Europe of knowledge, capable of enabling young people and adults to gain the qualifications and skills they need to enter the labour market and, just as importantly but something which is sometimes forgotten, to be integrated into society. A person with little training is not able to integrate himself into society, whatever his hidden or visible skills, and I think this is a loss not only for the labour market but also to society in general."@en1
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