Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-22-Speech-4-017"
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"en.20080522.6.4-017"2
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"Madam President, once again the Commission is getting ahead of legislation. The EU has no competence over education, at least not until the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, and that depends on the Irish referendum. Is the result of that a foregone conclusion, or will a ‘no’ vote there be just swept aside like the French and Dutch referendums?
In any case, what kind of structure will this training foundation have? I see that our proposal is for it to be run variously by six representatives from Member States, plus six from the Commission and only three from Parliament, or that plus representatives from partner countries appointed by the Commission. In the latter case, responsibility will partly be in the hands of countries which are not Member States, giving the unelected Commission a major say. Hardly democratic.
Amendment 7 suggests that the Commission would submit candidates for the directorship of the ETF, and this causes concern in many quarters. It has resulted in further suggestions as to the make-up of the ETF board, right up to an unworkable one representative for each Member State.
To have so many counter-suggestions for the composition of the board of the ETF is not exactly the best of starts, but that begs the question: Why does anyone think we need such a foundation? I would argue that a training foundation is not only unnecessary, it will be counterproductive. If you care to look round the countries of Europe as opposed to the EU, you will find training programmes of all sorts scattered around. There are different standards but, between them, they develop many skills, which is why Europe has such a rich heritage. You see, each country has always produced its artists, composers, authors and so on. Even the small countries come up with, for example, composers of world renown. Each country produces its leaders and experts, its technicians, bankers, sportsmen and women and all the rest of the range of skills that are enhanced by training.
So there is a multiplicity of skills, with each country contributing in its own way. If we try to put all that together in a European Training Foundation it would drain the life out of the training schemes in many countries. A single ETF will not have the intrinsic qualities of national flavour. We need variety, not a harmonised one-track theme.
In short, we will lose more than we gain with such a scheme. Please forget it and let the countries of Europe make their contributions to the whole. That might even generate enthusiasm for the EU project, for that is sadly lacking, judging by the ‘no’ votes of two founding states and the continuous efforts being made to sell the EU to its peoples."@en1
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