Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-28-Speech-4-019"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, allow me first to express my heartfelt thanks to the rapporteur, Mrs Pack, and indeed to Parliament as a whole. Parliament has proved a committed partner throughout this common enterprise of establishing educational programmes and setting the Europe of education on track. Its support has been invaluable. We would not be where we are now if Parliament had not lent a hand. Thank you all again.
Mrs Pack, I should also like to thank you and the other Members who have taken the floor today for your positive assessment of the youth programmes. They exemplify the kind of Europe we are aspiring to, a Europe where authority is not exercised from the top down but from the bottom up. This is actually starting to happen. Hundreds of thousands of young people have been able to study in another country. Hundreds of thousands of teaching groups are working with teaching groups in another country, and hundreds of thousands of teachers are on the road. That is great! I fully agree with those who believe that, apart from occasional minor problems, this splendid programme is working very well and should be developed further. I also agree with those who maintain that there are financial risks involved, and that the grants are too small. I have to tell you that I often meet Erasmus students. I have not yet come across a single unhappy one. They all say that given a second chance, they would do it all again. However, they also tell me that the grants are too small. We are aware of this and very much hope that the Finance Ministers will increase the resources available, so we can pass the increase on to students. It would then be possible to bridge the gap between social classes able to pay for travel and those unable to do so. I am entirely on your side. Consequently I trust you will support me in the future, as we press for increased financial resources for these programmes, particularly in the context of enlargement of the Union. As the House must be aware, we are already working with potential new Member States to ensure they are fully integrated into our educational programmes. Nonetheless, costs are bound to increase dramatically once these states become part of the Union. Additional resources will therefore be required if the awards are not to become even smaller. We shall have to fight for these, and I am confident Parliament will be on my side.
I should now like to turn to the issues that the speakers have raised.
Parliament does recognise that improvements have taken place as regards monitoring and evaluation. We are currently implementing a programme to evaluate Socrates II, and the results will be used as a basis for the Commission’s proposals for new initiatives to replace Socrates. I can assure the Chairman that the committee will be kept abreast of research and its assessment.
Then there is the issue of the relationship between the Commission and national agencies, that is, decentralisation. You will be aware that we have striven to put the links between the Commission and these agencies on a sound footing, and efforts to bring about an improvement are ongoing. All those involved have referred to administrative burdens. We have endeavoured to simplify the administration of the programme and make it more democratic, as you have also recognised. We have adjusted the Erasmus institutional contract to reduce by about 50% the number of contracts that beneficiaries have to sign. My services are also considering the feasibility of amending Socrates decisions, as Mrs Pack suggests. The aim is to avoid increasing the bureaucratic burden, particularly for schools involved in small projects. This will be achieved, Mrs Pack, with Parliament’s help of course. Once again, I appeal to Members to lend us a hand because progress is much faster once the House takes these issues to heart.
There is only one minor area where I am unable to respond positively. You have suggested doing away with cofinancing for small projects. I would very much like to, but integral financing would contravene the Community financial rules adopted recently and endorsed by Parliament. A radical reform of these rules would be required before going any further. Parliament would have to give an opinion as to whether it wished to go down that road.
Regarding the payment contract delays, things are now much better. We have not yet cleared the backlog, but the year 2001 will be an improvement on 2000, and 2002 will in turn be an improvement on 2001. The new procedures are now in place. We have brought committee meetings forward and simplified the legal base to finance the candidate countries.
I should like to say a few words on Symmetry. An effective data management system is urgently required and we are making progress, despite the problems experienced at the outset. Following a call to tender, a contractor was appointed in 2001. Symmetry will be developed in 2002 and 2003. Delivery is planned for August 2003.
Lastly, there are the Joint Actions. You are quite right, ladies and gentlemen, it is important to have plenty of these. 2001 was an introductory year involving a limited number of issues of common interest to Socrates, Leonardo and Youth. The 2002 call for proposals will take place in April and the topics chosen are social integration of target groups, active citizenship amongst the young, local guidance networks, formal and informal training. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you will appreciate that we are taking Parliament’s proposals very much to heart. This is not just to keep Members happy, but quite simply because the House is right. Parliament is quite properly inspired by its wish to improve the citizens’ Europe, a Europe whose young people are the cornerstone in the building of the new continent we are all engaged in constructing – a Europe where it is good to be alive."@en1
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