18 Education and training programme 2007-13
| (a)
(25846)
11587/04
COM(04) 474
+ ADD 1
(b)
(27534)
9697/06
COM (06) 236
|
Draft Decision establishing an integrated action programme in the field of lifelong learning
Amended draft Decision establishing an action programme in the field of lifelong learning
|
| Legal base | Articles 149(4) and 150(4) EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Department | Education and Skills
|
| Basis of consideration | (b) Minister's letter 12 June 2006
|
| Previous Committee Report | (a) HC 34-viii (2005-06), para 6 (2 November 2005)
(b) None
|
| To be discussed in Council | July 2006
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | (Both) Cleared
|
Previous scrutiny of document (a)
18.1 The European Community currently has four main education
and training programmes. They expire at the end of 2006. In October
and November 2005, we considered document (a), a draft Decision
to establish a single Programme for lifelong learning for 2007-13.[57]
The Commission proposed that its budget should be €13.6 billion,
about three and a half times as much as the combined budgets of
the present programmes for 2000-06.
18.2 The objectives of the new Programme would include
contributing to the development of lifelong learning; the promotion
of innovation and a European dimension in education and vocational
training; helping to improve the attractiveness and accessibility
of lifelong learning; reinforcing the contribution of lifelong
learning to active citizenship and gender equality; promoting
competitiveness, employability and language learning; and encouraging
tolerance for other peoples and cultures.
18.3 The new Programme would be implemented through
the following six sub-programmes :
- Comenius
to develop understanding of the diversity of European cultures
among the children and staff of primary and secondary schools;
- Erasmus to
support higher education and advanced vocational training;
- Leonardo da Vinci to
support all other aspects of vocational education and training;
- Grundtvig to
support adult education;
- Jean Monnet
to stimulate teaching and research related to European integration
and support institutions and associations concerned with European
integration and with education and training with a European dimension;
and
- Transversal to
support activities that cut across the other programmes (for example,
the development of language learning materials, innovative approaches
to teaching and dissemination of good practice).
18.4 The Government told the previous Committee that
it broadly supported the proposed Programme, so long as it was
consistent with the settlement of the EU's total budget for 2007-13.[58]
Our predecessors asked the Government for further information
and kept the draft Decision under scrutiny.
18.5 In his letters of 12 July and 12 and 27 October
2005, the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and
Higher Education at the Department of Education and Skills (Bill
Rammell) told us
- about the minor amendments
to the draft Decision which were likely to be agreed by the Council
in November;
- about the European Parliament's proposals for
minor amendments to the non-budgetary provisions of the Decision;
and
- that the UK Presidency hoped to gain "partial
political agreement" to the draft Decision at the Council
in November: that is, agreement on the non-budgetary elements
of the proposal, while leaving aside those articles which concern
the budgetary amounts, or which are directly related to the budgetary
amount.
18.6 We could understand why the Government and other
Member States saw benefit in reaching a partial political agreement
on the non-budgetary provisions of the draft Decision in November.
We saw no need to object to such a partial and provisional approach
on the express understanding that consideration of any provision
of the document could, if necessary, be re-opened in the light
of the settlement of the EU's overall budget for 2007-13; that
the Government provided us with timely progress reports; and that
the budgetary provisions of the document remained under scrutiny.
Document (b)
18.7 The draft Decision has been amended to take
account of the settlement of the EU's total budget for 2007-13.
The two principal changes proposed in document (b) are as follows:
- the Programme's total budget
for 2007-13 would be €6.970 billion, roughly half the amount
proposed in document (a); and
- minor adjustments to the allocation of the budget
between the individual sub-programmes, as follows:
| Programme
| Proportion of total budget allocated in document (a)
| Proportion of total budget allocated in document (b)
|
| Comenius
| At least 10% | At least 13%
|
| Erasmus
| At least 40% | At least 40%
|
| Leonardo da Vinci
| At least 25% | At least 25%
|
| Grundtwig
| At least 3% | At least 4%
|
The Minister's letter of 12 June 2006
18.8 The Minister tells us that the Government is content with
the proposal that the Programme's budget should be €6.970
billion. Some activities (such as the development of a web portal
for languages under the Transversal programme) for which funding
was ear-marked in document (a) probably will not be allocated
funding from the revised budget; none of these activities is a
particular priority for the UK.
18.9 The Government argued strongly for an increase
in the proportion of the budget to be allocated to the Grundtwig
sub-programme because of its role in improving adults' basic skills
and the major benefits that participants derive from Grundtwig
projects. Accordingly, the Minister welcomes the proposal to increase
Grundtwig's share to at least 4% and thinks it likely that the
actual allocation will prove to be a little over 5%.
18.10 Finally, the Minister tells us that the Commission
hopes that the revised Programme will be adopted by the Council
in July.
Conclusion
18.11 Last autumn, we did not object to the Government
taking part in the agreement of the non-budgetary provisions of
the draft Decision. The revised text in document (b) proposes
minor amendments to those provisions and they appear to us to
be acceptable.
18.12 The budget now proposed for the lifelong
learning programme is substantially bigger than the combined budgets
of the existing programmes. It is, however, only about half the
amount proposed in document (a). We recognise that this will be
a disappointment to those who welcomed the Commission's original
proposal. But the reduction appears to us to be a necessary consequence
of the settlement of the EU's total budget for 2007-13.
18.13 For these reasons, we are content to clear
document (b) from scrutiny. We also clear document (a), which
has been superseded by document (b).
57 See HC 34-vi (2005-06), para 6 (19 October 2005)
and HC 34-viii (2005-06), para 6 (2 November 2005). Back
58
See HC 42-xxxi (2003-04), para 2 (15 September 2004). Back
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