Europass Launch Conference – Closing speech by Mr Figel’
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:

• Europass is a comprehensive transparency instrument;

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

• 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
– A genuine Europe–wide labour market;
– A competitive European economy; and
– 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.

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:

• Employers and trade unions;
• Universities and training centres;
• Employment services;
• 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.