Luxembourg, 1 February 2005

I wish to thank the Luxembourg Presidency for hosting this conference on the future of mobility and learning throughout Europe.

I am very glad to see the large number of participants from all countries, representing education and training sectors, as well as the social partners.

This shows that Europass has raised high expectations. Also, it shows that the scope and importance of the Europass initiative has been fully understood:

ƒ Europass is a comprehensive transparency instrument;

ƒ It integrates both education and training within a lifelong learning perspective; and

ƒ It promotes citizens’ mobility training, education and work.

Europass is the result of an approach based on cooperation and goodwill. This approach marked the development and the legislative process leading to the Europass Decision.

In accordance with the Lisbon and Barcelona European Councils, the Education Ministers and the Social Partners in their Copenhagen Declaration of 2002 called for the integration of all European transparency instruments.

Two years on, the spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm has not faded – as illustrated by the success of the Maastricht Conference and Communiqué of last December.

Europass was designed, developed, and finalised in a very short time. This is a clear example of what we can do when we work together on concrete solutions to respond to the needs of the European citizen.

In the development of Europass, stakeholders, national authorities, and the Social Partners were not only consulted; they were actively involved.

Thanks to this joint effort, the European Parliament and the Council warmly welcomed the Commission’s proposal. In the same spirit of goodwill and cooperation, they could improve our proposal and adopt it in a record time.

More transparent qualifications and skills and greater mobility were key priorities of the Lisbon Conclusions in 2000 in order to achieve a

genuine European Labour market. This certainly will also be a strong message in the mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy to be sent to the next Spring Council in March.

Following two explicit requests made in Lisbon, the European common CV format – now integrated in Europass – and the Ploteus Internet portal were established in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

After this, the “Education and Training 2010” programme agreed by Ministers of Education in February 2004 called for a more focussed approach and integrated approach concerning the transparency of qualifications and competences. Therefore, Europass is part of three complementary pillars:

– Ploteus already provides clear information on learning opportunities and exchange programmes to many citizens throughout Europe;

– Europass will help citizens to make their qualifications and skills easily understood throughout Europe;

– The future European Qualifications Framework, as agreed at Maastricht, will provide a set of common reference levels to facilitate the recognition and transferability of citizens’ education and training qualifications. It will integrate and be supported by the other instruments agreed at European level, particularly

Ploteus, Europass, principles for the validation of non-formal learning and European credit transfer.

Together, these tools will increase transparency, recognition and mobility and promote our lifelong learning strategy.

Europass will promote and add value to mobility in education and training and, by improving communication between job applicants and employers, it will also make occupational mobility easier—both among countries and sectors.

Therefore, Europass will contribute to the achievement of

ƒ A genuine Europe–wide labour market;

ƒ A competitive European economy; and

ƒ A European lifelong learning area.

Europass will also complement the legal framework for the recognition of professional qualifications.

Finally – because Europass is mainly about transparency – it will improve mutual understanding in the many cases where official recognition is not required.

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Ladies and Gentlemen:

Let me now move to the conditions for a successful implementation of Europass.

First of all, it should be noted that Europass complements other policy instruments whether they be at European level—like the EURES database on job opportunities – or at national and regional level.

Europass also supports the implementation of the Community programmes and complementary networks such as Euroguidance.

The Commission and the National Europass Centres will take account of these instruments, programmes, and networks so that citizens are offered the best solution at the most appropriate level.

Europass will be a direct service to citizens. Our objective is that about 3 million citizens will have used Europass by 2010.

Some will only use their Europass CVs and Language Passports, but many will also use the other Europass documents.

Everyone involved in Community programmes mobility actions, about 300,000 people every year, will receive Europass Mobility documents.

Many others not travelling thanks to Community programmes will also receive these documents.

Finally, hundreds of thousands of Europeans every year will receive a Europass supplement along with their higher education diploma or vocational certificate.

I would like to stress that the Europass framework is open to meet future needs. In the medium term, we may add more components based on the experience gained and on the feedback we receive from users.

Our citizens expect a lot from Europass. We have taken firm commitments, now it is time to deliver.

It is imperative that we promote Europass and implement it in all countries and regions.

Europass is a service to the citizen, it can benefit many groups of users throughout the education and training sectors and in the labour market.

For these reasons, implementation should not be limited to the Commission and the National Europass Centres.

If we want to reach the 3 million mark by the end of this decade, we need the active involvement of everyone.

I am calling on:

ƒ Employers and trade unions;

ƒ Universities and training centres;

ƒ Employment services;

ƒ Guidance, information, and youth centres.

Let me conclude by stressing one final point: to live up to the high expectations Europass has generated, its implementation should rely upon the same spirit of committed cooperation and active support that marked its development and legislative process.

I’m counting on all of you. Working with the Commission and the National Europass Centres, we must ensure that Europass rapidly becomes a European success story.

Thank you.