World Conference of the European Association for Education Law
and Policy (ELA), University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, 26 November 2004

Ladies and gentlemen,
This is a very interesting time for me to have taken up the education portfolio at the
European Commission.
In the past, there has been much resistance—on legal grounds—to a European
Union involvement in education. Member States were careful to ensure that national
rights were not infringed upon.
This is reflected in the Treaty articles on education, which place great emphasis on
subsidiarity. These articles and this emphasis have been carried forward into the
new Constitution.

European cooperation in the field of education proved to be a very good thing for
our citizens. Examples like the Erasmus programme are the living proof of the value
of the Union’s role.
In addition, the Lisbon agenda, adopted by the Heads of Government in March
2000, has created a very positive environment
for cooperation in education and training, because it puts knowledge at the heart of
the Union’s strategy.

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Another measure adopted at Lisbon was the “open method of coordination”. Under
this method, Member States retain their sovereign rights, but agree to work together
to identify areas of common concern, to share experiences and good practices, and
to set agreed targets.
Each country remains free to achieve these targets by the most appropriate
methods, and to take full account of its socio–cultural setting and its educational
traditions.
It is undeniable that this method has worked well since Lisbon. In 2002, the heads of
Government set us the goal of making education and training systems in the EU a
‘world quality reference’ by 2010.
Some important steps have already been taken along this path:
The Education Council agreed for the first time in 2001 on concrete future objectives
of education and training systems, with a view to improving quality, facilitating
access and opening up education systems to the wider world.
In June 2002 it also adopted a resolution committing the Member States to develop
comprehensive and coherent national strategies for lifelong learning: these
strategies should be in place by 2006.
The Bologna process—though strictly speaking outside the European Union
framework—builds on the achievements of the Erasmus programme and promotes
both mobility and greater communication between higher education systems.
Finally, in November 2002 the Ministers responsible for vocational education and
training, in cooperation with the social partners and the Commission, launched the
Copenhagen process. This initiative is designed to develop concrete European
solutions for transparency, recognition and quality assurance. In many respects, one
can describe it as the vocational training counterpart to the Bologna process.

A European framework of key competencies which should be acquired by all
citizens;
A European framework for the qualifications and skills of teachers and trainers;
A single framework for the transparency of qualifications and skills (Europass).
I do not deny that focusing on education as a key element in Europe’s economic
competitiveness is a sensitive strategy.
When I meet people from the world of education, I sometimes hear concerns about
the risk that we will neglect the other purposes served by education.
Let me make it clear that our agenda is not about subordinating education to
economic growth.
However, for me there is no trade–off between personal development, social
integration and preparation for working life. All three are mutually reinforcing.

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I would therefore like to take this opportunity to salute the Dutch presidency of the
Council which, over the last five months, has worked hard to produce a report for the
heads of Government on the broader role of education and its cultural aspects.
That report has just been agreed by the Ministers for Education of all the Member
States and focuses particularly on the social–integration role of education, or
‘education for democratic citizenship’. The report is of great value in re-centring how
we look at education.
It also notes that all Member States see themselves challenged by the question of
how to deal with increasing social and cultural diversity among their citizens.
This trend, reinforced by globalisation and migration, threatens to weaken social
cohesion, which—let us not forget—is also part of the Lisbon agenda.
The resulting changes constitute major challenges to education systems, including
adult education and the youth sector, which are sometimes overlooked in policy
debate because of their often non–formal nature.
The report notes that active citizenship will continue to be a specific objective of the
new integrated lifelong learning programme which will succeed the Union’s current
Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes.
Finally, the report highlights the initiative of the Council of Europe to declare 2005
the European Year of Citizenship through Education. That initiative will give
education practitioners and policymakers some concrete tools to develop and
strengthen citizenship education.
I plan to take forward the process of mutual understanding in an increasingly diverse
and globalised society, by proposing that the European Union declare 2008 the
European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
The common strand of the sessions of your conference is justice: education as a
human right, access and equity in education, the right and obligation to be
educated, the cost of education, ensuring equal educational opportunities, and
rights including safety and religion.
These are all extremely important issues, and I welcome your promoting debate and
research in these fields. Work like yours draws out some of the philosophical
underpinning for the more concrete policy work which is the daily bread of education
ministers.

Our recent and ongoing work on the objectives of education and training systems
has also striven to look ahead. We need to go beyond practical cooperation.
Perhaps for the first time in the history of the European Union, we have taken a
more reflective view of what we are trying to achieve together.

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Nevertheless, the Commission’s vision remains focused on achieving concrete
results. We need to be moving forward from underlying principles to operational
policies.
On the basis of the Education and Training 2010 work programme, the Council in
May 2003 adopted five reference levels of average European performance, to be
achieved by 2010.
These reference levels, also known as ‘benchmarks’, serve in their way to promote
justice, because education is becoming an ever–more important determinant of
people’s integration into society, and of their personal as well as their material well
being.
They are as follows:
to achieve an average early school–leaver rate of no more than 10%;
to increase by at least 15% the total number of graduates in mathematics, science
and technology, while at the same time reducing the gender imbalance;
to raise to 85% the proportion of twenty–two–year–olds completing upper secondary
education;
to halve the percentage of low–achieving fifteen–year–olds in reading literacy;
to raise the average participation of the adult working population in lifelong learning
to at least 12.5%.

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Our Member States have committed themselves to lifelong learning, more
particularly through the Council resolution of June 2002, to which I have already
referred.
In that resolution they noted that, although Europe is a point of reference in many
fields, access to lifelong learning is still not a reality for many citizens.
They stressed that lifelong learning must cover learning from the pre–school age to
that of post–retirement, covering the entire spectrum of formal, non–formal and
informal learning.
Furthermore, they made it clear that lifelong learning must be understood as all
learning activity undertaken throughout life. The aim is improving knowledge and
skills within a personal, civic, social and/or employment–related perspective.
The principles in this context are: the individual as the subject of learning,
highlighting the importance of an authentic equality of opportunities, and quality in
learning.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
Our policies are designed to make Europe’s education systems a world quality
reference. Our universities and other centres of higher education should attract
bright, talented, and ambitious young people from the world over.

The Erasmus mundus programme serves this purpose. Erasmus mundus is a worthy successor to the intra–European Erasmus programme on which so many of our achievements have been built.

And we are also keenly aware that this sort of exchanges builds new bridges among peoples and cultures.

Reflecting on education in a truly worldwide environment, as you will be doing during your conference, raises additional issues, and again highlights the links between education and justice.

The millennium development goals, many of which are either directly or indirectly linked to education, show us how fortunate we are in Europe. They underline our moral obligation to help weaker countries develop their potential through education.

Creating—or rather re–creating—the Europe of knowledge must therefore be one of the main priorities of our process of integration in the years to come.

Thank you.