Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-08-Speech-5-034"
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"en.20000908.4.5-034"2
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"Mrs Gutiérrez-Cortines’s report pinpoints a certain lack of clarity with regard to the objectives of the European Year of Lifelong Learning, which she considers to be due to the lack of a definition of lifelong education and training. Just now I heard your fellow Member, Mrs Echerer, mentioning the many philosophical works which have, for centuries, pointed out the simple idea that one never stops learning. Quite apart from this research and these philosophical references, it is true that there were no clear definitions of what this requirement for lifelong education and training should be, while respecting disparities or the identities of our countries and even our regions.
We appreciated the rapporteur’s attempts to clarify matters by putting forward a definition of various concepts of lifelong education and training. I should, nonetheless, like to defend the Commission’s failure to establish a definition from the outset, particularly if the objective was to limit lifelong education and training to training designed solely to meet the requirements of the labour market, for, even though it is true that the initiative originated in the Commission’s White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment, it was nonetheless clearly apparent, right from the first exchanges of views with the European Parliament and the Council, that there was a consensus in favour of a broader approach including all aspects of education and training, practices and achievements. In this field, as I said earlier, systems vary appreciably from one country to another. We had to agree upon a collective idea which would be such as to initiate debate on the significance of lifelong education and training in terms which suited or respected the disparities between national and regional situations. The Commission therefore preferred to emphasise the continuum of training and the complementary nature of the various different aspects of training, including not only initial and higher education and initial and further training, but also other types of more informal training.
As the year progressed, the Commission became increasingly convinced that this approach was justified. We deliberately supported what might be called recreational training, as we were aware that some people who left the formal education system with the feeling of having failed – Mr Purvis stressed this point earlier and, incidentally, Mr Purvis, I have taken note of your suggestion for a research programme and I shall pass this on to my fellow Commissioners, Mr Busquin and Mrs Reding – people, young people, and not only young people, who leave the educational system with the feeling of having failed must be gradually won back to the idea that learning can be useful, pleasant and can instil self-confidence. It is clear, furthermore, that while lifelong training must become a reality, nonetheless even at the stage of basic education, in what Mr Seppänen called general education, it must be taken into account in order to ensure that every school pupil is motivated and has the necessary skills to learn in the various situations he will find himself in as an adult. In a nutshell, the child must learn how to learn.
Since the end of the European Year of Lifelong Learning, in the direction which Mr Lage mentioned just now, the idea of lifelong education and training continues to gain ground. It is no mere chance, ladies and gentlemen, that since 1996, for instance, ministers in a number of European countries have been made specifically responsible for lifelong learning. This concept provided the basis for the discussions which led to the latest generation of Socrates, Leonardo de Vinci and Youth Programmes. It was taken up by the G8 ministers who last year in Cologne adopted a charter on the subject, inspired to a great extent by the debates which took place within the fifteen Member States in the course of this European Year of Lifelong Learning. Moreover, as you know, education from this angle has continued to be one of the themes of the Japanese Presidency.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Commission has continued its deliberations on lifelong training and, as Mr Gasòliba i Böhm requested earlier, our endeavours from now on will be in keeping with the follow up to the European Council in Lisbon. In a few weeks, my fellow Commissioner, Mrs Reding, is to issue a draft memorandum on lifelong education and training to the Commission. This document will be sent to you before the end of October.
You will appreciate that today, at this stage, it is difficult for me to go any further into the details of this memo, but the link with employment, which your rapporteur, Mrs Gutiérrez-Cortines, called for, will of course be a key element of the memo, although the aspect of the rounded development of each individual, which remains one of the prime functions of education, will not be neglected.
The Commission will continue the debate on lifelong education and training with you, with this House, in that context. When I speak of the Commission, I am, of course, not only referring to the Commissioner directly responsible for matters of education, Viviane Reding. I mean, rather, that we feel concerned, many of us very directly, by this challenge, particularly, let me tell you, as Commissioner for Regional Policy, when I am signing agreements and working with the Member States and the regions on the content and the quality of programming documents in each of the Member States. I am entirely prepared to make room for the question of lifelong education and training and, in general, educational matters, in Structural Fund programmes.
Just now, I think it was Mr Seppänen who brought up a subject which I consider to be an absolute priority, i.e. access to the information society, not just for young people or students, but also for the older elements of the general public, and sections of the population that are often forgotten, such as farmers or small- and medium-sized businesses. Let me repeat what I have already told this House: I shall not sign any programming document for any European region in relation to regional policy, for which I am responsible, unless it includes a very clear plan for access to the information society for this region and for each region, and I do not mean access programmes exclusively for people of primary, secondary or higher education age.
I hope, on a lighter note, that the response I have just given you on behalf of the European Commission in my mother tongue will provide an additional resource for Mr Rübig in his enthusiastic learning of the French language throughout his life as a European Member of Parliament."@en1
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