Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-14-Speech-1-070"
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"en.20010514.7.1-070"2
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".
Mr President, if I have understood you correctly, you are inviting me to reply to the oral question. I shall reply later to the discussion on the reports.
I should like to thank Mr Gargani, who is represented today by Mrs Doris Pack, for his oral question concerning the specific future objectives of our education and training systems.
Above and beyond the question of who received what and when, or which report has been drawn up, Mrs Pack has said something of fundamental importance. She said that the European Parliament was the originator of every campaign to ensure that education is something other than a regional and national element and to ensure not only that the European dimension of education should be a matter for discussion, but that its beneficial effects should be recognised. We are almost there, Mrs Pack, because since Lisbon there has been a sort of silent revolution, an enormous step forward. However, even though we have made this enormous step forward, we must not forget that many structures, especially national structures, have remained in the old world, which is not so old as that, since it dates from only a year or two ago. We still have difficulties, therefore, in achieving a balance between the old-fashioned concept of subsidiarity and the concept of a subsidiarity which is very well able to collaborate with European interests. What I am doing, with your help, is performing a sort of balancing act, by trying to take a very big leap forward, while at the same time trying not to destroy the confidence of certain people who look askance, and with a critical eye, at any possible encroachments upon subsidiarity.
Having said that, I should like to give a clear reply to the question raised by Mr Gargani. It is true that the European Council in Lisbon asked the Education Council, and not the Commission, to give general thought to the specific future objectives of our education systems and to submit a report to the European Council in spring 2001. It is the Commission’s responsibility to ensure that the Council makes progress, even though the Commission itself was not specifically asked to do anything. In the final analysis, however, it was the Commission which prepared the work of the Council. Perhaps it was because of the initial difficulties that Parliament did not receive the documents in question in time to enable them to react. It received the documents afterwards, immediately afterwards. We have learned a lesson from this situation, which was not the fault of anyone in particular but is inherent in certain procedures. This is why I think that in future we ought to operate slightly differently. After all, ladies and gentlemen, we are aware of the time limits. The Heads of State and Government took the decisions at the European Summit in Stockholm, on 23 and 24 March 2001, on the basis of the text adopted by the Education Council on 12 February.
It will simply be a question of continuing with the work. In other words, nothing new will be incorporated into the structure. There will be new material in the texts, I hope, but not in the structure, because now there will be follow-up action. Each time, the Education Council will prepare for the summits. The next Education Council, due to take place on 29 November 2001, is already preparing for the Barcelona Summit. Under the Spanish Presidency, and therefore in the very near future, before the Barcelona Summit, there will be another meeting of the Education Council.
This being the case, Mr President, I very much hope, with all my heart, that Parliament will undertake to prepare to meet these time limits. You know very well that I have tried to inform and involve Parliament in our current thinking regarding the follow-up to this report, and I can honestly say that I shall pay attention to any thoughts which the European Parliament would like to share with me during the course of this year. This is why I always insist that Parliament should be asked for initiatives on this subject, and believe me, at every Council I repeat to ministers how important the elected representatives of the people are in this area. I hope that the collaboration based on the continuation of the relationships that are about to be established will operate in such a way as to ensure that full consideration can be given to the contribution of the European Parliament."@en1
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